Shreyas Iyer was No. 1 choice for Ricky Ponting© BCCI/IPL
Punjab Kings, a franchise that often pressed the reset button in the Indian Premier League auctions, finally seems to have found a squad that it can bank upon. With head coach Ricky Ponting at the helm, the Punjab Kings went all the way to the final last year and have gone unbeaten in the first couple of games this season. The shift in the Punjab Kings’ fortunes, as visible through, under the guidance of Ponting, has been built over a high-calibre Indian spine over the traditional reliance on overseas superstars. By making skipper Shreyas Iyer the focal point of their auction strategy and surrounding him with the proven international pedigree of Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal, Punjab have insulated themselves against the unpredictability of the IPL.
During a chat on JioHotstar, Ponting opened up on how retaining just two players before the IPL 2025 mega auction allowed him the opportunity to work with the players of his choice, with the No. 1 choice being Iyer.
“The toss went our way again, and we were really keen to chase on that pitch. It looked like a belter of a wicket with a little bit of grass on it, something that we’re not used to seeing in Chennai,” Ponting said on the victory against the Chennai Super Kings.
PBKS raised a few eyebrows by retaining just two players – Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh – in ahead of the mega auction. But, Ponting said that is exactly what he wanted.
“Some of our young Indian talent, the guys at the top of the order, are pretty special. To build some of those Aussie guys around them, we had a really clear strategy going into the auction last year about trying to rebuild this whole team from the bottom up, and change and be different as a franchise. By just keeping Prabhsimran and Shashank, it gave us an opportunity for me to pick the guys that I wanted to work with. Shreyas was obviously number one on the list. But it was really important to get the highest-quality Indian players into our team with Arshdeep and Yuzi. So far, so good. We’re happy, but you can’t afford to be too happy in a tournament like this. We’ve got a game in a couple of days at Eden Gardens, and that’s going to be a high-scoring game,” he said.
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