Five losses on the bounce have left Punjab Kings with the unenviable task of taking down defending champion Royal Challengers Bengaluru to keep its Playoffs hopes alive.

In what could be the defining game of their IPL 2026 season in Dharamshala on Sunday, the baggage of an unfavourable head-to-head record and a string of losses at the HPCA Stadium only add to the Kings’ quandary.

Since 2023, PBKS has just one win in seven games at the venue. And Virat Kohli’s crowd-pulling presence might leave it with thin support at its ‘adopted’ home. It will also have to put the horrors of consecutive Playoffs losses, in IPL 2025, to RCB behind it.

In the first of those defeats, in the first Qualifier, Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar had torn through PBKS’ top-order. Bhuvneshwar, surfing the high of a purple patch, could again disrupt up front, having had the better of PBKS opener Prabhsimran Singh four times in nine innings.

Shreyas Iyer’s lopsided batting run has been a concern for PBKS. The captain averages nearly 70 in run-chases this season, but it nosedives to 30 while batting first. Iyer will also have to find a way to mitigate the threat of Hazlewood, to whom he has succumbed four times in six innings and averages just 2.75.

Though just one win away from sealing a top-four spot, RCB has its own batting frailties to tend to. Kohli comes on the back of a record-extending ninth IPL century, but his back-to-back ducks in the preceding two games give PBKS a plan to attack him with seam.

Despite this being a day game, rain on match eve and the pitch staying under covers are expected to aid pacers, thus making bowling first the more lucrative option after winning the toss.

Jacob Bethell averages just 14.17 this season, which has left RCB without the explosive starts that it was accustomed to with Phil Salt.

Down the order, Jitesh Sharma’s woeful run is probably the biggest concern for RCB as it gears up for post-season. The side already axed Romario Shephard over his dwindling returns and would want to avoid another tweak in the lower middle-order, especially with its first-choice wicket-keeper.

The importance of its lower middle-order won’t be lost on the table-topper, for it faces a bowling lineup that has appeared toothless in closing out its innings. PBKS sits with the worst economy, bowling average and boundary rate at the death this season, which have contributed significantly towards its losing run.

One more misstep on Sunday would leave PBKS hanging by a thread and at the mercy of fate.