‘Made it pretty clear that…’ – Ricky Ponting spills beans on what he told PBKS management before taking over as coach

Punjab Kings (PBKS) made it to the IPL 2025 playoffs after more than a decade. Shreyas Iyer and his side went into the knock-out phases of the season at the top of the points table. Ricky Ponting has been one of the biggest reasons behind Punjab Kings’ rise this season. The former Australian cricket legend had been appointed as the coach after he parted with Delhi Capitals. 

During the IPL 2025 auctions, PBKS spent big on the purchase of Shreyas Iyer for 26.75 crores. The former IPL finalists also acquired Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal, as well as players like Marco Jansen and Marcus Stoinis, who have done well. Ponting and Iyer had already worked together during their time in DC for a few seasons. 

Speaking to PTI, the former Aussie legend was asked if he had a point to prove after his stint with DC. Ponting sai,d “I'm not sure if I had a point to prove. With the good squads that I had in DC, it was pretty evident to see where we made it with good players in that squad. We had three years in a row where we made the playoffs. One of those was into a final that Mumbai beat us in”

Ricky Ponting’s no-nonsense approach before taking PBKS job 

In his chat with PTI, Ponting also mentioned that he had told PBKS management to give him full autonomy over decisions if he took over as the coach. The move seems to have worked since PBKS have made some tremendous decisions at the auction table that have seen results bear fruit. 

Ponting said, “I made it pretty clear that when I accepted the head coach's job that I wanted to have pretty much full autonomy over the way that we go about the coaching staff and the way that we go about putting the strategy together with the auction, our scouts did a terrific job.”

The 50-year-old also added, “We got the players that we wanted, whether they'd be younger players or more experienced overseas players. And that's been shown so far that, with Glenn Maxwell and Lockie Ferguson getting ruled out early in the tournament, we've hardly skipped a beat,”