India, May 26 -- Punjab Kings entered IPL 2026 as last year's finalists and exited the league stage in fifth place with 15 points, one short of the playoff cut. The cricket story of six consecutive wins followed by six consecutive defeats has been told at length. What has not been told is the financial story underneath it, which is starker, more precise, and considerably more damning. The WPA Impact Index assigns a monetary value to every player's appearance across the season, and for PBKS, it reveals a squad built on a structural contradiction that no winning streak could permanently hide.

PBKS finished with a season profit of Rs.27.29 crore, placing sixth in the ten-team monetary league table. Total worth generated across the campaign ...