Shreyas Iyer who has become the first player to lead three different teams into the play-offs has heaped his praise on Punjab Kings’ head coach Ricky Ponting for making his life easy as a captain. Punjab, which had already made the play-offs, by beating Mumbai Indians in their last league match on Monday, ensured they will finish in the top two of the table.
Having assembled another new-looking squad at the player auction, all eyes were on Punjab as to how they would go about it on the field. But under Shreyas captaincy and Ponting’s coaching, Punjab, by embracing an attacking approach and a bowling unit that complements the batting department have been the standout side. With Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh forming a formidable pair at the top, in Josh Inglis and Shreyas, Punjab have had a fluid batting line-up that has played fearless cricket. Overall, their overall planning and execution has stood out and Shreyas has credited Ponting for it.
“Ricky has been fantastic with the player management. And for me, it’s important to gain the trust of each and every individual. And that happened initially by winning the matches. And the more interactions you have with the players, the more confidence they get,” Shreyas said.
Speaking of his camaraderie with Ponting, Shreyas said, “He just gives me that freedom to go out there and express myself, especially being decisive on the field. I tell him that ‘you do the thinking outside, let me go and execute things on the field’. So yeah, all these things have culminated in a great way and I’m kind of ecstatic that everything is working.”
Having began the tournament at No 3, Shreyas demoted himself to No 4 and in turn promoting Josh Inglis to one down. The Australian opener has maximised it to his advantage and Shreyas explained the rationale behind the move. “Our plan was that since he loves to play new ball, he was the only batsman we were chopping and changing right from the game he played. So I wanted him to play more deliveries as much as possible. And we know he can be destructive and he can change the momentum of the game. It worked like wonder for us. Obviously, he’s a big-match player and we saw that today. So yeah, fantastic attitude and I hope that he keeps continuing with the same,” Shreyas said.
