Punjab Kings’ captain Shikhar Dhawan has said that his team will take a lot of learnings from their eight-wicket defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.

The 37-year-old has further stated that the team will analyse and look to bounce back stronger in their upcoming IPL 2023 fixture.

“There are a lot of learnings for us as a team, and we're going to go and analyse where we can get better and come back stronger. We've got a great bunch of boys, really enjoying the tournament and taking it day by day,” Dhawan said at the post-match presentation. 

While Dhawan slammed an unbeaten 99 off just 66 balls, he expressed disappointment for losing too many wickets in succession.

“Yeah, I was very happy with my knock. As a batting unit, we lost too many wickets back-to-back and couldn’t put up a big total on this ground and because of that we lost the game. 175-180 would have been a reasonable score. The wicket looked quite good but it was seaming and swinging,” the southpaw added.

The PBKS captain further explained that he was playing according to the situation despite losing wickets at the other end.

“I didn’t expect to reach there at the end of the day but I was playing according to the situation, still keeping positive. Of course it was disappointing (seeing wickets keep falling) but the way we thought the wicket was going to play, it was playing differently. It was seaming and sometimes kept low. But that’s a learning process for my batting unit and that’s fine,” Dhawan stated.

After suffering their first defeat of IPL 2023 season, the Kings will aim to return to winning ways against reigning champions Gujarat Titans in their next encounter at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Thursday, April 13.