Published: April 4, 2026 at 4:45 pm
Last year’s finalist Punjab Kings have started off the new IPL season with a bang and coach Ricky Ponting is quite pleased with the results thus far. Punjab Kings on Friday evening decimated five-times champions Chennai Super Kings as they romped to a five-wicket victory. This ensured that Punjab soared to the top of the table with four points from their two wins.
“The toss went our way again, and we were really keen to chase on that pitch. It looked like a belter of a wicket with a little bit of grass on it, something that we’re not used to seeing in Chennai. Some of our young Indian talent, the guys at the top of the order, are pretty special. To build some of those Aussie guys around them, we had a really clear strategy going into the auction last year about trying to rebuild this whole team from the bottom up, and change and be different as a franchise,” said Punjab head coach Ricky Ponting on JioHotstar’s Google Search AI Mode Match Centre Live.
Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh
“By just keeping Prabhsimran and Shashank, it gave an opportunity for me to pick the guys that I wanted to work with. Shreyas was obviously number one on the list. But it was really important to get the highest-quality Indian players into our team with Arshdeep and Yuzi. So far, so good. We’re happy, but you can’t afford to be too happy in a tournament like this. We’ve got a game in a couple of days at Eden Gardens, and that’s going to be a high-scoring game,” Ponting added.
On the importance of continuity in the personnel, Ponting said: “We had a 10-day camp, and even the overseas boys coming in, the moment they sat down, they said ‘this just feels like we haven’t left, it feels exactly like it was last year.’ We’ve got one change to our coaching staff, and we brought in only three new players.
We have to win. My eye is on the trophy, asserts Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer
“On the back of what was a successful season for us last year, I wanted to do that, create an environment and a culture, which is the hardest thing to do in the IPL, especially when your overseas players turn up three or four days before your first game. But when you have that continuity, similar messages, and strong leadership, with our players and coaching group very much the same, it does make it easier,” the Australian said.
It’s going to be tough call on Brar: Ponting
On why Harpreet Brar hasn’t played this season so far, the coach said: “If you look at the balance of our side at the moment, particularly on a good wicket like that, it’s really hard to fit that second spinner in. It has cost Shreyas in the first two games; it cost him 12 lakh in the first one and probably 25 lakh this game, and it cost us a few extra fielders coming into the circle late.
“Harpreet Brar had a terrific domestic season, and he was really good in the games he played for us last year. His batting has really come a long way as well. So, he’s an all-rounder just sitting there, waiting for the right conditions so we can bring him into the side. But when we do, it’s going to be a tough call. It’s probably going to be Bartlett or Vyshak, one of those guys will have to make way, and Vyshak has the Purple Cap for wicket-takers at the moment, so it’s going to be a tough call,” the coach added.
Yuzvendra Chahal. Pic: BCCI
This is classical spin bowling: Harbhajan
“If you look at it from the side angle, when the ball leaves a spinner’s hand, it should come out from the top of the hand and drop down to the bottom, almost forming a half-moon shape. Yuzvendra Chahal isn’t very tall either, so he uses that to his advantage by giving the ball more air and flight. The more you flight the ball, the more revs you get. And the more revolutions there are, the more the ball will dip and turn. Because of this, the batter feels like the ball is coming towards them, but it actually isn’t; the ball is still far from them. That’s why when you go for a big shot, you end up hitting high but not long, because you are early into the shot. This is how a proper spinner bowls. This is classical spin bowling, which is a dying art, almost like dinosaurs; there are only a few left now. There’s Kuldeep, there’s Chahal. The rest say they are spinners, but like everyone else, they don’t bowl like one, they just keep bowling fast,” said former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
