Ahead of IPL 18 Punjab Kings coach Ricky Ponting and captain Shreyas
Iyer at New PCA Stadium in Mullanpur during the team's practice
session on Tuesday.
(Express Photo/Kamleshwar Singh)Punjab Kings coach Ricky Ponting sang high praises for captain Shreyas Iyer, saying that he was desperate to work with the Indian batter again after their previous three year stint for the Delhi Capitals.
“I was desperate to work with Shreyas again. 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,” Ponting said in a recent media interaction.
“We’ve put a great squad together. As you know, captain-coach relationship in any team is vital. And I know that we’ve got a really good strong one here,” the former Australia captain added.
The Australian great also stressed on the importance of winning at home, something Punjab Kings have not been able to do in recent years.
“What I understand is that if you are not winning at home, you are not winning the IPL,” Ponting put it in simple terms. “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).,” he said
“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,” he added.
In the mega auction last year, Punjab had retained only two players before going on to build a squad full of match winners including Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell and Marco Jansen.
Punjab will open their IPL campaign against the Gujarat Titans on March 25 in Ahmedabad.
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