NEW DELHI: In the Punjab Kings lineup for the 2025 Indian Premier League, India batsman Shreyas Iyer expressed his excitement to collaborate with Ricky Ponting once more. He recalled the fantastic camaraderie he had with the renowned Australia captain for the Delhi Capitals.
During their three seasons as head coach and captain, Ponting and Iyer led the Delhi Capitals to a second-place finish in 2020. However, their reunion was all but guaranteed when Ponting was named Punjab's head coach earlier this year and the team purchased Iyer for Rs 26.75 crore at the Jeddah auction last month.
"I can understand what the feelings must be among the fans. With Ricky coming in, we have shared a great camaraderie from the past. We would be putting our thinking caps on and brainstorming on many aspects. Hopefully, we will deliver from the match one."
"Super excited to be part of Punjab Kings. I cannot wait to join the Punjab Kings family. It's been a great year for me to win four trophies. My main goal is to win the IPL trophy for Punjab," said Iyer in the franchise's statement on Saturday.
Iyer joins Punjab after leading Mumbai to their second Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy championship in Bengaluru and captaining the Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL 2024 championship. Iyer amassed 345 runs in nine innings, including a century and fifty, during Mumbai's successful campaign.
"Surreal feeling after winning Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. A lot of hard work took place behind the scenes. The boys were tremendous with their performance. Now we are done with this part," added Iyer.
