After an impressive start to the IPL 2026 season, Ravi Bishnoi‘s wicket-taking form has tapered off.

He picked up nine wickets in his first four appearances for Rajasthan Royals (RR), but in the last four games, he picked up just two wickets and gave away 115 runs in 11 overs – an economy rate of 10.45. And he was dropped for the game against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Tuesday, with RR putting their faith in Yash Raj Punja, a 19-year-old legspinner who had played alongside Bishnoi in the loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), returning 1 for 25 from his four overs. In that game, Bishnoi had 1 for 41.

“I thought he was in good form,” Piyush Chawla, a legspinner himself and still at No. 4 on the highest wicket-takers’ list in the IPL despite not playing since 2024, said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut programme. Abhinav Mukund, meanwhile, said, “I’m not too much in agreement with the Yash Raj call because I believe firmly that teams who have been successful over a period of time in the IPL have maintained a core of bowlers, or Indian players.

“And especially when Ravi Bishnoi has bowled well. If you’re going to drop him for another leggie, that’s going to dent his confidence massively.”

Punja was RR’s most successful bowler against PBKS, picking up two of the four wickets to fall, and conceding 41 runs from his four overs as RR were set a target of 223, which they got past with four balls in hand.

Bishnoi came to RR this season after a poor time with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL 2025, when he picked up nine wickets in 11 innings at an economy rate of 10.83. That, though, was after a stellar few seasons in the IPL: from 2020, his first season, to 2024, he had 12, 12, 13, 16 and 10 wickets, and had economy rates of 7.37, 6.34, 8.44, 7.74 and 8.77, respectively. Of his 44 T20Is, 37 came between 2022 and 2024.

And then he dipped.

“Last season was difficult. But I tried to stick to my processes. I had one weakness: if my length was wrong then I was getting hit for fours and sixes,” Bishnoi said earlier this season after his 4 for 41 against Gujarat Titans (GT). “That’s what I was trying [to rectify]. I played a whole season of domestic cricket, and worked on perfecting my lengths. Hitting my lengths made it difficult for batters – when I was too full I got hit today too.

“Mental, technical and physical… [I worked on] all three [aspects]. I’ve been putting the physical work too, in off-season, between games and in domestic.”

Abhinav didn’t feel LSG made a wrong call in letting Bishnoi go after IPL 2025, but did suggest that RR might have been harsh on the legspinner. “[LSG] didn’t make [a mistake in releasing him], Ravi Bishnoi was bowling badly at that point,” Abhinav said. “But I don’t think he’s had a bad season this year.”