Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting blamed the ongoing PSL 2025 in Pakistan for the franchise’s current lack of interest in seeking replacements, citing the limited availability of quality options.
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00:00No, look, a brilliant, as you said, a captain's knock.
00:05You know, we talk all the time about making sure that we have top order partnerships with our cricket.
00:09I thought Prab Simran today again was outstanding.
00:12You know, I think we found one of the players in the tournament in Priyansh area that's opening the batting with him as well.
00:18And those two got us off to a good, solid start again.
00:20But look, Shreyas, he started this tournament in form that I've never seen him in before.
00:25You know, his first three or four games for us were outstanding.
00:28And then that today is one of the reasons that I was so keen to get him here as our captain.
00:34I know how good of a player he is.
00:36I know how good of a leader he is.
00:37And I know how hungry he is for success.
00:41And I think he proved that to everybody tonight.
00:42Because that, I mean, that wasn't ever going to be an easy run chase.
00:46Turning up here today, I thought 160 or 170 would probably be a good score on that pitch.
00:52The pitch ended up playing better than I thought, probably better than everyone expected it to, to be honest.
00:56You know, they played well, but it was a great run chase from us.
01:00You know, we've got a very skilled team.
01:03We've got a very skilled group of players.
01:05But we've got a group of players that have got unbelievable belief in themselves and in one another.
01:10And we've got great belief as a team.
01:11And I think that got us across the line tonight.
01:13Coach, yeah.
01:15Just following up on shares, you've worked with him in DC as well.
01:19He has led them to the final.
01:20He did win with KKKR.
01:23Just the way he's captain tactically, how he has been exceptional this season in terms of what he brings to the table as a leader and captain.
01:30Him as a person.
01:33That's the thing with him.
01:35I mean, as you say, I had worked with him for a number of years at Delhi.
01:39He and I are really close off the field.
01:42You know, we talk a lot about the game.
01:44We talk a lot about his batting.
01:45We talk a lot about the tactics of the game.
01:47But I actually think he's taken his game to a new level.
01:51You know, he's a more mature player now.
01:53I think he understands the game and game situations probably better than ever before.
01:58And I think that was showcased there tonight to be able to play the way they did.
02:01The only, you know, he'll be disappointed with himself that he didn't hit the winning runs.
02:05He didn't get his team across the line.
02:07Because I know how much he prides himself on being the man that's there at the end to win games.
02:11But, look, I love working with him.
02:14You talk to all the players.
02:15All the players love working with him.
02:16And the way he communicates with them, whether it's during the game or at practice or back at the team hotel.
02:22He's, you know, we've managed to create a really good environment that everybody seems to be really happy in.
02:28And the boys are playing some good cricket in.
02:29So, all in all, yeah, it was another good performance from us tonight.
02:35Hi, Ricky. Congrats on the ring.
02:37Just picking up on that question, how do you think Shreyas has evolved as a captain?
02:41You've worked with him before.
02:42So, what are the changes you see?
02:43He's a lot more confident in himself now than he was.
02:48And that comes with experience.
02:49I mean, he won the IPL last year as a captain.
02:51So, when you've done that and you've got that experience behind you and you believe and trust in your own instincts, I think that's the biggest thing with captaincy.
03:00Especially in a T20 game when everything around you is happening so fast.
03:04You know, fours and sixes are flying everywhere.
03:07His ability to stay calm on the field, though, he mightn't have been that calm tonight when we were a couple of overs late getting through the overs.
03:13But just his maturity, I think, and that experience.
03:18And he knows he's got a good group around him as well.
03:20He knows he's got a lot of senior players around him that he can talk to if he needs to.
03:22But I think any time he makes a decision now, he sticks with it and trusts it.
03:27And that's a great thing for a captain.
03:30Hi, Ricky.
03:31You see a lot of Brisbaneers coming up with a lot of mystery sort of hitting the deck.
03:35And Sojas balls 100 kph.
03:36But you're at Chehal who's pulling off record defences and breaking games open for you today.
03:41So, can you just talk about how Chehal's been this successful with his own method?
03:46Well, it didn't look like he was going to take four for 30 today.
03:48He did it at one stage.
03:50You know, two overs for 30.
03:51And then he comes on and gets a hat trick and four wickets in and over.
03:53And, you know, that actually put the brakes right on them.
03:57They could have got away and got sort of 220 or 210 at the end there.
04:00And they didn't.
04:02Look, Yuzi, he's a wicket taker.
04:04That's what you have leg spinners in your team for.
04:06They've got to back themselves and trust themselves that they're going to be good enough to get any batsman out at any time.
04:12So for him to have that little impact at the back end of the game today,
04:15will do a lot for his confidence as well.
04:18So, yeah, I mean, when we were at the auction table,
04:21we talked about how we were going to build the team that we thought was going to be good enough.
04:26And Chehal, you know, being the leading wicket taker ever.
04:30And then you've got Ashdeep and Saras and these guys.
04:33They start to form the backbone of a nice looking team.
04:36So Chehal's been a big part of that.
04:38And he will be more of a part of that as the tournament goes on.
04:40You know, we head up to Durham-Charles now tomorrow.
04:43We're not exactly sure what sort of surface we'll get there.
04:46Over the years, it hasn't been a wicket that's aided spin a lot.
04:49But when you've got a quality leg spinner like him, it doesn't matter what surface you play on.
04:53So I think tonight will be a great confidence boost for him as well.
04:56Just talk about whether he had any talk because he was an awesome puller.
05:15Do you have any conversation with him about the particular shot?
05:18And also, going to Dharamshara with the semi-final spot leading up, unsure of the conditions,
05:25does it likely make it a little all the more challenging for Panjong?
05:29No, I don't think so.
05:30I mean, it's still our home ground, right?
05:32It's our home ground.
05:33We should know the conditions better than anybody else.
05:35We should be able to play the conditions better than anybody else.
05:38So we travel tomorrow.
05:39We've got a very long travel day tomorrow.
05:41And then we've got two training days before our next game.
05:44So we'll have a chance to look at the conditions and work them out.
05:47I think the one thing in our favour, actually, we had a four or five day camp up in Durham-Charles before this season started.
05:54Everyone went there except for a couple of the overseas guys.
05:57So our Indian guys will have a good understanding of what the conditions will be like up there.
06:01I know it's a slightly different time of year now, but I think we've got a pretty good idea of what the conditions will be like.
06:07So, no, we want to make that a place where teams are going to find it hard to come and win.
06:11You know, at the end of the day, as it is, we've just got two home grounds, right?
06:14So Moolanpore was two on two.
06:16Hopefully, when we go to Durham-Charles, we can win three games up there.
06:20And what was the first part of your question?
06:21Sorry.
06:22No, I've had nothing to do with that, this IPL.
06:28You guys will see how his stance has evolved.
06:31You know, he's opened his stance up a little bit.
06:33He's getting his right eye around more to the release point of the ball.
06:36And with his shoulders being open, he's being able to create some more access to the ball when the ball is back in towards his body.
06:42So that's stuff that he's all worked out himself.
06:44And, you know, we're still working on it pretty much every day.
06:47There's little things that he needs to do.
06:48Because it is such a drastic move that he's done, he's got to make sure that everything is in the right position and all his movements are syncing up really well.
06:55But, I mean, some of the innings he's played this tournament so far have been as good as anyone else's.
06:59I mean, there's been a lot of hundreds made.
07:01But Saras' first game when he made 97, that's as good an innings as I've seen in the tournament.
07:05So, and I just think with him, if you look at him now, you just look at him in the eye, you can tell that he's really hungry for success.
07:12He's just got that look in his eye where he knows he's the leader of this team.
07:16He wants to bring success to this team and this franchise.
07:20And the way that he's playing, he doesn't look like he's going to let anything get in the way of that.
07:23So that's a great attitude for a leader to have because that rubs off on everybody else around him.
07:30Hi, Coach.
07:30Firstly, congratulations on the win.
07:32So, Rocky Ferguson was ruled out of the tournament earlier.
07:34And today, Shreya said that Maxwell has a fractured finger.
07:38So is there any update on whether you'll be signing replacements?
07:40Will it be a good six-point in this?
07:42Yeah, well, we will be signing some replacements at some stage.
07:46Obviously, we've got up until our 12th game.
07:48So we've got a couple of games to go yet.
07:51We really are, because we've got, we've sort of with the squad that we've got, we have 25 players in our squad anyway.
07:56We've got most bases covered.
07:57So we've got Asma Tula there, obviously, and we've got Aaron Hardy that hasn't played yet.
08:01Xavier Butler that didn't play today, conditions-based.
08:04But when we go to Durham, Charlie, he would come back into the reckoning up there with someone where the ball might swing
08:09and bounce a little bit more.
08:11So we've actually just been a little bit patient.
08:13I mean, Maxi's one's only been a couple of days.
08:15Lockie's has been two or three weeks.
08:18And, you know, with the PSL happening at the same time, there's not a lot of high-quality replacements out there, to be honest.
08:24So we've just been patient.
08:26You know, we're having a look around Indian talent as well and looking at what roles we might be able to fill with some younger Indian players.
08:36So we'll actually take a couple of guys to Durham, Charlie, with us.
08:39We had a couple of guys that trained with us yesterday.
08:40They'll come to Durham, Charlie, up there, and we'll have a closer look at them.
08:43And if they're good enough, they might find themselves in it with a Punjab contract going forward.
08:48But, yeah, we'll see how we go over it.
08:51I mean, it has to be this week.
08:52It has to be, as I said before, the 12th game.
08:54So stay tuned.
08:57The playoff rest is still on.
08:59From down onwards, each and every game seems very important.
09:03So are you happy with the 11th that you had today?
09:06And you'll be using the same thing in the coming games?
09:09Or you'll be changing depending on the opposition?
09:11It will change on the opposition and it will change on the conditions.
09:15So today, you know, in our bowl first team, you know, with Bra being in that and then Suryanch obviously being in that side,
09:22we had a pretty good batsman in Bra at number 10 in a bowl first side.
09:26So we've got a lot of options.
09:28We've got a lot of flexibility.
09:30You know, at the auction table, you know, I was very keen to get a lot of all-rounders into our squad
09:35because you can play them all and know you've got a lot of bases covered.
09:38So, yeah, when we get, so we've got LSG up in Durham Shale the first game.
09:44I don't think it'll be the exact same 11.
09:48But when you have a win like that, you don't want to be making too many changes either.
09:51So you'll know in a couple of days who's going to play up there and who's not.
09:54So you'll know in a couple of days who's going to play up there and who's going to play up there and who's going to play up there and who's going to play up there.