Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting was appointed as the head coach of the Punjab Kings in the IPL on Wednesday (September 18). The all-time leading run scorer for Australia in Tests and ODIs, who was previously associated with Delhi Capitals, signed a four-year deal with the Mohali-based franchise.
Before joining PBKS, Ponting served as DC’s head coach for seven years (2018-2024) but was relieved from his duties in July 2024. After parting ways with DC, Ponting expressed his desire to work in the IPL again and joined PBKS, which was also in search of a new head coach.
According to Ponting, who won the IPL 2015 title as head coach of the Mumbai Indians, he was in talks with other franchises as well for the coaching job, but it was ‘Project Punjab’ that eventually attracted him, and he signed the deal with Preity Zinta’s co-owned side.
“Yes, I was talking to a few teams, but it was ‘Project Punjab’ that attracted me. It is a team that hasn’t had a lot of success over a long period of time, a team that’s changed coaches a lot, so I saw it as a challenge. The other exciting part is that I saw some really exciting youngsters last year at Kings’ that hopefully we can attract back to the team for this season and put together a team that is going to be good enough to win the IPL,” Ponting was quoted as saying by ESPNcricifno.
“I mean, there’s no doubting over the years that the Kings have had good players and have had good teams. They just haven’t been able to win it yet. I have a longish-term deal there, and hopefully, during that period of time, we can win the IPL,” he added.
Punjab Kings is one of the three teams in the IPL that has played in all 17 editions but has never managed to win an IPL title. In fact, it hasn’t qualified for the playoffs in the world’s richest franchise cricket league since the 2014 edition.
In the 2024 season of the IPL, PBKS finished 9th in the points table after being able to win only five out of 14 matches.
Comments
0 comment