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Why Punjab Kings Preferred Shreyas Iyer Over Rishabh Pant In IPL 2025 Mega Auction?

Aashay Chopade

Shreyas Iyer with Rishabh Pant in IPL (Source:@DDNewsRajasthan/X.com)Shreyas Iyer with Rishabh Pant in IPL (Source:@DDNewsRajasthan/X.com)

Punjab Kings came with the biggest purse in the IPL 2025 mega auction, 110.5 Crore to be precise. They only retained two uncapped players, and so they were always expected to do lot of heavy-lifting in the auction, and they have done exactly that. They bagged some big Indian players like Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal, but their most expensive buy turned out to be Shreyas Iyer. 

The right-handed batter was bought for 26.75 Crore and was preferred over Rishabh Pant by Punjab Kings who have a new head coach, Ricky Ponting. There were rumours that PBKS would go for Rishabh Pant with a huge purse left in the tank, but they decided to go for Iyer instead of the Indian wicketkeeper batter and the main reason for it was Ricky Ponting's experience of working with both the players.

Why Ricky Ponting's Experience With Shreyas Iyer And Pant Worked Wonders For PBKS?

Ricky Ponting was the head coach of Delhi Capitals from the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League and had both Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant as captains at different point in time. Till the 2020 season, Shreyas Iyer was the captain of DC and the duo of Ponting and Shreyas Iyer worked wonders as the franchise made it to the final of the 2020 edition. However, after an injury to Shreyas, Pant was named as captain and then the franchise continued to back the wicketkeeper batter as their leader and eventually Shreyas left DC.

However, DC could not achieve the success they expected during Pant's tenure and some tactical blunders were quiet clear during crucial junctures of the game. The main thing was that Ricky Ponting who was a successful captain himself seems to find Shreyas Iyer as better captain than Rishabh Pant. So, his influence surely has played a big role, and his point of view also reflects in results as KKR won the IPL title in 2024 under his leadership.

As far as batting is concerned in the IPL, Rishabh Pant has slightly better stats than Shreyas Iyer. However, Shreyas Iyer is a good enough batter and he too has the ability to win the games for his side single-handedly. So, buying Shreyas Iyer over Rishabh Pant seems like a smart move from PBKS, and the credit should be given to their new head coach, Ricky Ponting.