Shreyas Iyer might have been bought for a high price of INR 26.75 crore in the mega auction ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, but he has proved why he is worth every single penny as he has led Punjab Kings to the playoffs. This is the first time in 11 years that the franchise have qualified for the playoffs. Not just this, PBKS have also qualified in the top two, sealing a place in Qualifier 1. Shreyas Iyer and co won the all-important match against Mumbai Indians by seven wickets on Monday at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium to boost their chances of making it to the final.
Punjab Kings will now face either Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) or Gujarat Titans on Thursday, May 29, in Qualifier 1. After the win over Hardik Pandya and co, PBKS head coach Shreyas Iyer went gaga over Shreyas, heaping praise on his leadership style and how the Indian batter has managed to rally his troops around.
Ponting, who worked with Shreyas Iyer earlier at the Delhi Capitals, said he was hell bent on working with him and that is the main reason why the franchise splurged more than INR 26 crore at the auction.
"I was pretty keen to work with him, Iyer, again. It was pretty obvious that how much money I was willing to spend on him at the auction. We had a great working relationship in Delhi, we made a final in Delhi under his captaincy. I've known him as a person and as a player for a long time. He's a quality person, and when you've got quality people around your team when you're trying to make a difference, and you're trying to change culture, that's what you need," Ponting said while speaking with the host broadcaster.
"If you spoke to the players individually, I think every single one of them would give Shreyas a great rap because he has spent a lot of time with them. He's pumped them up, he's given them a pat on the back when they needed it, and he's given them a kick in the pants when they've needed it as well, which is a sign of a really good and strong leader," he added.
'We haven't achieved anything yet'
{{/usCountry}}"If you spoke to the players individually, I think every single one of them would give Shreyas a great rap because he has spent a lot of time with them. He's pumped them up, he's given them a pat on the back when they needed it, and he's given them a kick in the pants when they've needed it as well, which is a sign of a really good and strong leader," he added.
'We haven't achieved anything yet'
{{/usCountry}}Punjab Kings might have sealed a top-two spot, but Ponting believes his side has not achieved anything yet, as the big games are yet to come.
"I'm obviously very pleased for the group. It's a lot of hard work that goes into being able to achieve something like this as a team. I think it's pretty obvious to see that this is a really talented team that are all on the same page and heading in the same direction," he said.
"I mean, yeah, it's a great achievement till now, but really, if you look back, we haven't achieved anything yet. That's the one thing I've been saying to the players since the moment we qualified," he added.
Punjab Kings chased down 185 against Mumbai Indians with seven wickets in hand and nine balls to spare. Josh Inglis and Priyansh Arya scored 73 and 62, respectively, to help Punjab Kings seal their place in Qualifier 1.
Earlier, Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen and Vijaykumar Vyshak scalped two wickets each as Punjab restricted Mumbai Indians to 184/7.