Punjab Kings New Recruit Shreyas Iyer Hails Ricky Ponting's Mentorship

Shreyas Iyer, Punjab Kings' (PBKS) most recent signing, has had an incredible year. The Indian cricket player was a member of the Mumbai side that won the Ranji Trophy for the 42nd time at the beginning of the year. The Kolkata Knight Riders won their third Indian Premier League championship under his leadership. He also played for the Mumbai team that won the Irani Cup. Mumbai won the 2024–25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) under his direction, their second SMAT championship this year.

In the Punjab Kings lineup for the Indian Premier League 2025, India batsman Shreyas Iyer expressed his excitement to collaborate with Ricky Ponting once more. He recalled the fantastic friendship he had with the renowned Australian captain throughout the competition. 

Shreyas Iyer is eager to shine:

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 Ricky Ponting was named Punjab's head coach earlier this year and the team purchased Iyer for INR 26.75 crore at the Jeddah auction last month.

Punjab Kings shared a video in which Shreyas Iyer is heard getting candid about his acquisition. He said, "Surreal feeling after winning the 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. 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 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.

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