‘With Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant Available…’: Coach Ponting Reveals Punjab Kings’ ‘Auction Strategy’ – News18
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Ponting dicussed how he wanted Punjab Kings, who have failed to make the IPL playoffs since 2014, to play a completely new brand of cricket.
Ricky Ponting opens on auction strategy
Punjab Kings’ retention was the most surprising among all. The franchise retained just a couple of uncapped players, Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh, and let go of the rest of the squad members. It was a massive move, especially with international stars like South Africa quick Kagiso Rabada, England all-rounder Sam Curran and India pacer Arshdeep Singh among the players that PBKS decided not to retain.
Speaking about the strategy behind holding on to just two uncapped players, newly-appointed head coach Ricky Ponting said he was looking forward to building a squad from scratch with Punjab.
“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),” Ponting told ICC.
“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 added.
Ponting went on to discuss how he wanted Punjab Kings, who have failed to make the IPL playoffs since 2014, to play a completely new brand of cricket.
“A couple of new coaching staff come in as well (for Punjab Kings). The main and most important thing for me is making this whole franchise different. Making it different from outside, making the results on-field look different,” Ponting noted.
“I want us to be the most dynamic and most entertaining franchise and group of players in the IPL.”
The former Australia captain was surprised to see the likes of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer were let go by their respective franchises.
“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,” Ponting said.
“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,” he added.
This, however, means that teams will have to strategise better with respect to their team composition.
“This is where it gets exciting,” Ponting said. “You’ve got to understand who your number one target is and how much money you are willing to pay for them. That’s such a big part of it (IPL), of getting the auction right strategy-wise. And then handing it over to us, as a group of coaches.”
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