Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shreyas Iyer's exceptional performance in the ICC Champions Trophy, where he amassed 273 runs and emerged as India's leading scorer, played an instrumental role in their title triumph. Shreyas Iyer now turns his attention to the Indian Premier League (IPL), where he is set to captain the Punjab Kings (PBKS). Punjab Kings splurged a whopping amount of Rs 26.75 crore in the IPL 2025 auction to secure the services of Shreyas Iyer.
Iyer's tenure at PBKS will see him reunite with Ricky Ponting, who will assume the role of head coach. This reunion brings back a successful partnership, as Iyer previously worked under Ponting's guidance during his time with the Delhi Capitals (DC).
Shreyas Iyer all praise for Ricky Ponting
In anticipation of the IPL 2025 season, Iyer expressed his admiration for Ponting, emphasising the coach's unwavering support during challenging periods and his ability to instill confidence, making Iyer feel like a 'great player'. Shreyas and Ponting worked together during their stints with Delhi Capitals.
“He supports everyone. When I worked with him for the first time in the past. He made me feel like I am a great player and I can easily excel in this format. The confidence he gives a player is of a different level,” Shreyas said at the media interaction.
Even Ponting heaped praise on Shreyas ahead of IPL 2025. Ponting said he is more than happy to have Shreyas as PBKS captain as the franchise couldn't have asked for more.
“He's a great human being. He is an IPL-winning captain (with KKR in 2024). We could not have asked for more. He has only joined the camp a couple of days ago, so he is starting to make his mark on the team as a captain and as a leader and that will evolve over the next few days before we get into our first game. But as I said, I could not have been happier,” Ponting said during the media interaction.
DC's IPL 2025 schedule:
DC vs LSG, March 24 - Vishakhapatnam
DC vs SRH, March 30 - Vishakhapatnam
CSK vs DC, April 5 - Chennai
RCB vs DC, April 10 - Bengaluru
DC vs MI, April 13 - Delhi
DC vs RR, April 16 - Delhi
GT vs DC, April 19 - Ahmedabad
LSG vs DC, April 22 - Lucknow
DC vs RCB, April 27 - Delhi
DC vs KKR, April 29 - Delhi
SRH vs DC, May 5 - Hyderabad
PBKS vs DC, May 8 - Dharamsala
DC vs GT, May 11 - Delhi
MI vs DC, May 15 - Mumbai
DC's IPL 2025 squad
Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Mitchell Starc, KL Rahul, Harry Brook, Jake Fraser-McGurk, T. Natarajan, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Mukesh Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam, Dushmantha Chameera, Donovan Ferreira, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari.