The Punjab Kings franchise will go into the IPL 2025 auction with the largest purse. Only two uncapped players were kept by Ricky Ponting's team: Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 4 crore and Shashank Singh for Rs 5.5 crore. The Punjab, who recently hired Ponting as their head coach, would have access to an incredible 110.5 crore. Since the new Australian coach will probably have to start from zero, Punjab chose to let go of some of the biggest names, including Kagiso Rabada and Arshdeep Singh.
Ponting agreed to a four-year contract, and as Punjab has not won the IPL crown yet, he is anticipated to be handed a long rope to help matters. The former World Cup champion responded to the fact that some teams did not keep a number of prominent Indian players for the 2025 Indian Premier League in an interview with Sanjana Ganesan for the ICC Review.
"There are a lot of exciting players. So many. I’m a bit surprised with some of the non-Indian retentions if you like, with both Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant being available in the auctions. It was a bit surprising, even KL Rahul to a certain degree. It seems like individuals or franchises are busy looking to move in different directions to some of their players," said Ponting
Ponting also talked about Punjab's approach, given that the IPL team only kept two players before the IPL 2025 big auction.
"I’m most excited about a new, fresh start. It starts to come together today, with the retention list. It’s well documented as to what I’ve done with Punjab (Kings). We’re only going in with two uncapped players and we’re going into the auction with the biggest purse by a long way. So, we’ve got the ability to put a whole squad of players together," he said.
