Punjab Kings assistant coach Brad Haddin confirmed that captain Shreyas Iyer is likely to play in its upcoming match against Chennai Super Kings on Friday at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.

Shreyas sustained an injury in the 12th over of Punjab Kings’ innings against Gujarat Titans after he was struck on the right wrist by a shot from Cooper Connolly. The 31-year-old appeared in immediate discomfort but was able to continue batting after treatment, though he was dismissed shortly after the incident.

Haddin confirmed that Shreyas had avoided a fracture, saying, “No break, so that’s a good thing. Now it’s just about getting the swelling down and getting the movement back in the hand, so he should be right for tomorrow.”

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“We’re very lucky, it was well hit by Cooper. It was a drop catch though from the captain, we’ve put it down as a stat,” Haddin said with a chuckle. “But all in all, we got the best possible result we could out of what we thought at the start looked like a nasty incident.

Haddin also praised Cooper Connolly, who announced himself in the IPL with a mature 72 not out from 44 deliveries to see the team home to a six-wicket victory on his IPL debut.

“We’ve known about him in Australia for some time, and we were pretty keen to get him early in the auction. We spoke very early in our preparation about getting hold of Cooper before anyone could get a real look at how good he was and I think everyone got a taste of the maturity he has with the bat.

“The way he controlled the innings in his first IPL game under pressure as well with things going on around him, we’ve known about that for a long time and I think everyone got the opportunity to see his skills.

The 22-year-old will not be available to bowl as he recovers from an injury, meaning that Punjab Kings could go into this match with Yuzvendra Chahal as its only recognised spinner. Haddin, however, backed the flexibility in his side’s squad, saying, “We’ve got (Pravin) Dubey there who can bowl leg spin, and (Harpreet) Brar who’s had great success at this ground as well.”

“We just saw the other night that we didn’t need the second option with the weather around and it worked out well.”

Published on Apr 02, 2026