IPL 2025: Rayudu calls Shreyas-Ponting partnership a 'good match made in Punjab'

Captain Iyer and coach Ricky Ponting had worked together at Delhi Capitals, previously, where they managed to enter playoffs in 2019 season, before becoming runners-up in 2020 edition. Now reunited at the PBKS set-up, the Iyer-Ponting partnership has resurrected the side’s fortunes in such a brilliant fashion that they are now on the verge of entering the playoffs for the first time after the 2014 season.

"Shreyas has had this partnership with Ricky Ponting at Delhi (Capitals). They both know each other very well. That is very, very important. You need to know your coach as a captain because both have to be hand in glove. It's a long tournament. You can't be on different pages or (have) different mindsets.

"And Shreyas actually likes Ricky Ponting a lot. He is someone who is a little more aggressive in terms of his strategies, I think it's a good match that is made in Punjab at the moment. Shreyas definitely as a batsman has improved quite a lot," said Rayudu on ESPNCricinfo.

Katey Martin, former New Zealand women’s wicketkeeper, believes Iyer is more in sync with Ponting’s approach to coaching, as compared to when the legendary Australia skipper was with Delhi Capitals till IPL 2024, where Rishabh Pant was the captain.

"Ponting, going into the auction, he spoke so much about the fact that he wanted to build a team around the captain and he wanted the captain to lead the side. With Shreyas Iyer scoring runs as well, he's been able to translate that into the captaincy and the confidence and vice versa."

"With Pant, who hasn't had that confidence and hasn't been able to score the runs that he would have liked, I think there's added pressure as a wicketkeeper as well. When you're a keeper you have to kind of rely on others around you and (Nicholas) Pooran's probably the next leader."

"You see him come from the boundary. But when he's in the boundary the majority of the time, it can be a little challenging. So that's the added pressure of keeping and to negate the bowlers from as far back as you can as a wicketkeeper," she concluded.

On Sunday, PBKS registered a comfortable 37-run victory over Lucknow Super Giants, which moved the Shreyas-led side within striking distance of a playoff berth.