India's lead left-arm pacer took the field for Punjab Kings' season opener against Gujarat Titans on 31 March 2026 as the team's primary strike bowler. However, he went on to bowl one of the most erratic spells seen at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur. Arshdeep finished the night without a wicket, giving away 42 runs in his four overs, a performance that proved costly in a very tight first innings. The final figures don’t quite show how difficult the evening became, especially during his final over.
While IPL rules limit a bowler to four overs, there is no cap on extras. Arshdeep’s total ball count reached 33 for the night, including nine extra deliveries made up of eight wides and a no-ball. His last over became the main talking point of the game. Facing Rashid Khan and Rahul Tewatia, Arshdeep opened with a wide and a dot ball. He followed up with another dot, but Tewatia hit the third legal delivery for four.
From there, his rhythm broke down completely. A wide yorker finished well outside off-stump, a short ball went over the batter's head for a height wide, and two more leg-side wides followed. By the time Arshdeep finished the over, he had bowled four wides and one no-ball in addition to the six legal balls. This 11-ball over equalled the record for the longest over in IPL history.
He is now part of a small group of bowlers who share this unwanted record. Mohammed Siraj, Tushar Deshpande, Shardul Thakur, Sandeep Sharma, and Hardik Pandya have all previously bowled 11-ball overs in the IPL. Arshdeep is the latest to join the list, doing so against the Gujarat Titans at Mullanpur in 2026.
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Arshdeep's 42 runs are currently the highest conceded by a frontline bowler in the tournament's first four matches. To put this in perspective, when Sandeep Sharma bowled an 11-ball over in 2025, he only gave away 19 runs in total. This highlights how Arshdeep’s struggles lasted throughout the entire four-over spell rather than just one bad moment. While the flat Mullanpur pitch, which averages a first-innings score of 191, played a part, the high wide count suggests a clear struggle with execution.
Even with Arshdeep’s difficult night, the rest of the Punjab Kings' attack stayed disciplined. Vijaykumar Vyshak was the standout, taking three wickets, while Yuzvendra Chahal finished with 2 for 28. For the Gujarat Titans, captain Shubman Gill led the scoring with 39 off 27 balls, and Jos Buttler made 38 before being caught on the boundary. Despite a fast start in the power play, GT were held to 162 for 6 in their 20 overs.
Arshdeep Singh is still regarded as India's most consistent white-ball bowler, and one bad game is unlikely to change his standing in the long run. However, conceding 8 wides and 42 runs is a tough start to the 2026 season. Punjab Kings, chasing 163, will want their lead pacer to find his line and length again quickly, as these extra runs could be the difference between winning and losing in tighter games later in the tournament.
