Credit: IPL/X
The duo of Ricky Ponting and Shreyas Iyer is back again for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League in 2025. Previously, former Australian captain has served as a head coach for Delhi Capitals while Iyer was leading the franchise till 2020. Now, Iyer has been appointed as captain of PBKS with Ponting taking over as head coach again. Ahead of the upcoming season, Ponting revealed that he was ‘desperate’ to work with Iyer again in IPL 2025.
Punjab Kings bought Shreyas Iyer for a whopping INR 26.75 crore in the IPL 2025 mega auction making him the second most expensive player in the history of the league. I was desperate to work with Shreyas again,” Ricky Ponting said at PBKS’ pre season press conference. “We had a great working relationship at Delhi over a long period of time. He’s one of the best players that I’ve worked with. He’s a great human being. He’s an IPL-winning captain. You couldn’t ask for much more. He’s only joined the camp a couple of days ago. So he’s starting to make his mark on the team as a captain and as a leader. We’ve put a great squad together. As you know, the captain-coach relationship in any team is vital. And I know that we’ve got a really good strong one here," he further said.
If you are not winning at home, you are not winning the IPL: Ricky Ponting
Speaking further, Ricky Ponting also talked about the importance of home matches in the IPL. He said that winning home matches is crucial if the team wants to win the IPL. PBKS will kickstart their IPL 2025 campaign with a match against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on March 25,
“What I understand is that if you are not winning at home, you are not winning the IPL. It’s one of the main reasons that I’m sitting here now. I wanted a really strong coaching challenge. And we’ve got that. But there’s no pressure on us. What have we got to lose? (having never won). We’re going to go out and play a really dynamic and entertaining brand of cricket. And I know we’ve got the players that can do that." Ricky Ponting said.
