Former India cricketer Sarandeep Singh feels that domestic coaches of talents like Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh deserve the same credit as Ricky Ponting for taking the Punjab Kings (PBKS) into the final of IPL 2025. The duo of Priyansh and Prabhsimran opened the innings for the Punjab-based franchise throughout the season and were quite successful as well.
Both the batters flourished under Ponting
Priyansh finished his debut IPL campaign with 475 runs from 17 matches while Prabhsimran had an even better season, finishing with 549 runs. The duo haven't yet made their international debuts so far, but their performances in IPL must have caught the eyes of selectors.
Sarandeep feels that Ponting didn't do much except for picking the players in the squad. He further credited the domestic coaches of PBKS youngsters for the franchise reaching the IPL final.
“Ricky Ponting became the coach of PBKS. Everyone said that he is a very good coach. What would he have explained? You have performed and gone there. He just made you play there," Sarandeep said while speaking on Taruwar Kohli’s YouTube channel.
“If Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran have scored runs, their coaches have worked hard and by listening to them, they have made these runs. But people say Ricky Ponting told them something different. You can help a bit skill-wise, but during the season, these things can’t happen. If you are selected in IPL or India, you are selected to perform. There is no scene of improvement. It is only about man management," he added.
Though PBKS did end up reaching the IPL final earlier this year, they got defeated by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and returned home empty-handed. This was the second final that the Punjab-based franchise went on to lose as they had previously lost the penultimate match of IPL 2014 to Kolkata Knight Riders.