Watch: Cooper Connolly's brutal shot injures Shreyas Iyer during PBKS vs GT IPL 2026 clash

Injuries have been the part and parcel of any cricketer’s career, but for Shreyas Iyer, it has become a consistent aspect in recent times. He missed a massive part of his career in the white-ball formats after he injured himself while attempting to grab a catch during the away ODI series against Australia. But in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, he was inched away from picking another injury. 

Iyer was out of the game for a long time before making his return to competitive cricket. However, he missed the chance to be part of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka, and he had a chance to be part of the T20I side after a strong season for the runners-up of the last season.

Shreyas Iyer got injured in brutal way during IPL 2026

Shreyas Iyer cut the short ball from Rashid Khan into the square region on the off side and made his way into the non-strikers’ way for a single. On the very next delivery of the 12th over, the leg spinner put a wide delivery to the striker, Cooper Connolly, who used all of his power to smack the ball to the other end.

Watch the video here: 

Iyer didn’t get the time to be away from the ball, which hit the batter’s wrist quite hard as he fell on the ground and looked in severe pain. The Punjab Kings’ dug-out, including their coach, Ricky Ponting, looked really concerned to see the condition of their captain and a classy top-order batter, as they won’t afford to see him missing the game.

Shreyas Iyer dismissed for 18 to Prasidh Krishna

Iyer came into the crease during the tenth over of the innings. On the second ball of the eleventh over, the right-handed batter got rushed onto the pull shot and was in no position to counter the short ball against Ashok Sharma. But the top edge flew over the long leg region. 

On the very next delivery of the over, it was another short ball banged in and angled down the leg side, to which Iyer sat onto the right-hander and swiveled across to get the top of the bounce and pulled it over the long leg region for another six.

The Mumbai-born was dismissed for 18 runs in 11 balls as his shot was caught by Washington Sundar. Punjab Kings, however, lost their way in the chase and found themselves at 121/6 in 15 overs during their chase of 163 runs.

Brief Scores: PBKS 142/7 (Cooper Connolly 62*, Prasidh Krishna 3/15) vs GT 162/6 (Shubman Gill 39, Vijaykumar Vyshak 3/34)