Punjab Kings have brought some of the best young Indian talent, says Ricky Ponting

New Delhi, Nov 28 (IANS) The IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah saw plenty of uncapped Indian players who earned good deals after being star performers in their respective state-based T20 leagues. Punjab Kings was amongst those sides who heavily invested in some of them – like opener Priyansh Arya, who was bought for INR 3.8 crore, shone bright in the Delhi Premier League (DPL) by amassing 608 runs in 10 innings with a whopping strike rate of 198.69 and made headlines for hitting six sixes in an over en route to making a blazing century.

The side also roped in promising players like Harnoor Pannu, who was a member of India's team winning the U19 World Cup in 2022 and amassed 578 runs in 12 matches, including hitting 33 sixes in the Sher-e-Punjab T20 tournament. Others like Musheer Khan, who made big runs this year at the U19 World Cup, Ranji Trophy, and Duleep Trophy, Suryansh Shedge, Pyla Avinash, and Pravin Dubey are other youngsters who were picked by Punjab, after catching the eye of their scouts.

"We have brought some of the best young Indian talent into our group, which is very exciting. So, our scouts have done a great job and worked really hard and well to make sure that the auctions go exactly how we wanted them to," said head coach Ricky Ponting.

The side also roped in five Australian players - Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie and Xavier Bartlett, which made for an amusing look. "We have (a few Australians) and I'll probably get some criticism. I think we have got five Aussies out of our complement of eight overseas. But when you look at the slots that we needed, the players that we have got fitted into those roles perfectly."

"To have Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell back to Kings is huge as they have both played here in the past. A couple of new guys, including Xavier Bartlett, Aaron Hardie, and Josh Inglis, are coming into the IPL for the first time, which is also really exciting for us," added Ponting.

He also talked about the acquisition of quality all-rounders like Hardie, Marco Jansen and Azmatullah Omarzai, which was aimed at bringing balance and stability to the team. "So we have many world-class all-rounders with Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Hardie. So it's worked out really well.”

“I couldn't be happier. I mean, everyone's going to walk away saying that they are really happy with their auctions, but I think the overall feeling around our table and certainly what a lot of the Punjab fans are saying is that they are really happy with the job that we have done so far."

Reflecting on how the auction panned out for Punjab, Ponting remarked, "Extremely happy (with the auction). We had a great Day One, securing some of our bigger-name players and some of our most expensive players. But we knew Day Two was probably even more important."

"We had more slots to fill and some important ones as well. We came into this auction thinking that, with the amount of money we would spend, we might get 20 or 21 players. But we have got a full quota, including eight overseas players."

Ponting signed off by saying he’s ready to hit the ground running for the upcoming season. "I am (ready for the season) now. Now, that's all the hard work is done really. For the auctions, there's a lot of hard work that's gone into the two days of the auction. We've got the players. Now, it's over to me and the other coaching staff to make sure that when we get there in March sometime, that we are ready to go on and win the IPL."

Punjab Kings squad: Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Nehal Wadhera, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Marco Jansen, Josh Inglis, Lockie Ferguson, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Kuldeep Sen, Priyansh Arya, Aaron Hardie, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Xavier Bartlett, Pyla Avinash and Pravin Dubey

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