Dharamsala leaves Punjab Kings with two homes and no advantage

PBKS have had to fight the conditions in contrasting venues which has made adapting very difficult

Sidharth Monga

Published: May 16, 2026, 1:37 AM (3 hrs ago)

If you ask a person from Punjab what a good time to go to the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh hills is, you are likely to be told that there is never not a good time. Except for a group of cricketers who have an IPL 2026 season to salvage and find themselves in Dharamsala at the wrong time of the season. Just when Punjab Kings (PBKS) had finally begun to figure out the New Chandigarh conditions and were starting to feel confident of overcoming losing the toss there, they had to deal with their nemesis: Dharamsala, where they have won only one out of their last seven matches since going back there in 2023.

The most dominant teams in the IPL are the ones that have turned their home venues into fortresses. At their peak, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) built a team that was nigh unbeatable at Chepauk. Gujarat Titans (GT), the most consistent team since their debut, have worked so well in Ahmedabad that some insiders even believe the colour of the clay of the match pitch changes according to the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. Until Jaipur's Sawai Mansingh Stadium ran into disrepair and Rajasthan Royals (RR) were forced to split their home games, they were consistently dominant at home and a force to be reckoned with.

Outside CSK in 2018 and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2014, no team has played its home matches in two venues and won the title when the IPL has been played in India.

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On both occasions, the teams were forced to give up their home base because of reasons beyond their control. PBKS, RR, Delhi Capitals (DC) and now Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) remain the only teams that voluntarily spread out their home matches.

PBKS, or Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in their erstwhile iteration, have forever had a fraught relationship with "home". There were years when they would play in Mohali, one of the biggest outfields in the country and one of the lowest-scoring grounds, and Indore, a postage stamp made for extremely high scores. The team management would be bamboozled trying to cover such diverse bases.

In 2021, the management rebranded the team from KXIP to PBKS. Dharamsala made its comeback after a ten-year hiatus in 2023. In 2024, they moved their main home base from Mohali to New Chandigarh. In 2025, they brought together the leadership team of Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting. Still, they continue to hold the worst win-loss record at home since both 2021 and 2024. Overall they are the second-worst among active teams, only better than Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Which brings us to why it is not the wisest move to play three of their seven home matches in Dharamsala. A big part of home advantage is to build a squad that can mitigate losing the toss in home conditions.

They were beginning to do that in New Chandigarh, again one of the bigger outfields in the country. And then they have had to adjust to Dharamsala, one of the smaller playing surfaces where the toss has been crucial, be it with the heavy dew as against DC or with the pitch settling down as against Mumbai Indians (MI).

That they had got on a bit of a losing streak before coming to Dharamsala only compounds the problem. After having remained unbeaten in their first seven games, PBKS are now left needing to win both their remaining matches to be reasonably confident of making it out of the league stage. The prized top-two position looks like a bridge too far. One of these two matches is against the table-toppers RCB.

The saving grace is that the RCB game in Dharamsala is an afternoon game, which is when the toss might matter less. Imagine winning the one toss that matters less than the others.

You still need to play good cricket to win the IPL. PBKS still have more experience of playing in Dharamsala than teams visiting there only once a year. If they want to be champions, they need to overcome this challenge. However, you do want your team owners to make it easy for you to build a squad that covers as many bases as possible. And multiple home venues with disparate qualities don't help that cause.

Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo

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