Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting gear up for deep strategy sessions with Punjab Kings: 'Putting our thinking caps on'

Shreyas Iyer, a right-handed batter, was highly sought after in the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction held in Jeddah. Eventually, he was secured by Punjab Kings for a whopping sum of INR 26.75 crore. Shreyas, who recently led Mumbai to victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, will now be reunited with former mentor Ricky Ponting at PBKS. The duo had previously worked together at Delhi Capitals during the IPL seasons from 2018 to 2020. Shreyas is thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate once again with the World Cup-winning captain from Australia, Ricky Ponting.

2024 has been a good year for Shreyas, barring one mishap right at the start. He was dropped from BCCI's Central Contracts list after he failed to turn up for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. However, things have picked up for the 30-year-old since then.

Shreyas was a part of the Mumbai team that won the Ranji Trophy for the 42nd time. He then led Kolkata Knight Riders to their third IPL title. He was also a member of the Irani Cup-winning Mumbai team.

"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," said Shreyas Iyer.

'Super excited to be part of Punjab Kings'

Shreyas Iyer is now laser-focused on a significant task: winning a maiden IPL trophy for the Punjab Kings. Iyer, who was signed on by PBKS at the mega auction last month, expressed his excitement about joining the 'Sadda Punjab' family.

"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," Iyer said.

Recently, Shreyas led Mumbai to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy win after the side defeated Madhya Pradesh in the final in Bengaluru.

"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," Iyer said.

In the auction, PBKS also brought the likes of Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Marco Jansen.

PBKS squad for IPL 2025: Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Glenn Maxwell, Marco Jansen, Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Josh Inglis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Kuldeep Sen, Priyansh Arya, Aaron Hardie, Musheer Khan, Xavier Bartlett, Pyla Avinash, Suryansh Shedge, and Pravin Dubey.

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