Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag questioned Marco Jansen’s performance after Punjab Kings suffered a six-wicket loss against Mumbai Indians at Dharamshala on Thursday. Jansen conceded 22 runs in the 18th over he bowled when MI needed 50 runs off the last three overs.

Thus, that over proved to be the turning point of the game. The lanky South African returned with figures of 1-55 in his quota of four overs.

Jansen has scalped seven wickets in 12 matches of IPL 2026 at an average of 64.28 and an economy rate of 10.38. Furthermore, Jansen could only manage two runs off seven deliveries and Sehwag said PBKS could have posted 210 runs if the right-hander had played a better cameo.

“A lot of deliveries were wasted (by him). Even if he had taken a single or hit a boundary, you would have reached 210-220. If they had scored 210 today, PBKS might have won it. I don’t know what Shreyas Iyer will say today, but both Jansen and Bartlett bowled in quite ordinary fashion. PBKS played 52 dot balls in a 200-run innings. Imagine if this were 25 dot balls, and score only singles off the rest, you are still adding 27 runs more to the score,” Virender Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

“The kind of cricket he has been playing, and has been bowling, it is not expected from him. Maybe he has given up completely and has said that he won’t be able to do it,” he added.

Moreover, Xavier Bartlett conceded 53 runs in 3.5 overs he bowled and also went wicketless. This was Punjab Kings’ fifth consecutive loss as they have failed to bring their best in the second half of the league stage.

Punjab Kings will next take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Dharamshala on Sunday.