We Want To Become The Greatest Punjab Kings Team Of All Time: Ponting

18 seasons and counting without a title, 10 seasons without reaching the playoffs. As far as ‘bad’ teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) go, the Punjab Kings (PBKS) are statistically right up there as the worst side in the competition’s history.

Yet for the Kings, there is revived hope heading into IPL 2025, having appointed two serial winners in Ricky Ponting and Shreyas Iyer.

Ponting, an IPL-winner with Mumbai Indians (MI) both as player and coach, transformed a similarly-worse Delhi Capitals (DC) side and nearly took them all the way. Meanwhile Iyer, who was with Ponting at DC, is a reigning champion, having captained Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to the title in IPL 2024.

The pair are here with the aim of delivering PBKS their first ever title, and Ponting made it clear ahead of the new season.

“The overall vision for this team is to win the IPL. I told the guys on the very first day when I joined the camp in Dharamshala that we were going to create and become the greatest Punjab Kings team that's played,” Ponting said ahead of the new season.

“That's the journey that we're on and that doesn't happen overnight. You've got to create that.”

Ponting further spoke about how ‘winning’ ultimately comes down to attitude. The ‘serial winner’ tag for Ponting comes from his playing days, where he led arguably the greatest team in Men’s cricket history, the Australian side of the early 2000s, to one title after another. 

“Winning is really an attitude thing. If we turn up to play, the opposition turns up to play, if they want to beat us, then it feels like they're taking something away and I don't want to let anyone take anything away from me or take anything away from my team.”

The Kings finished 9th in IPL 2024, 8th in IPL 2023 and 6th in IPL 2022. IPL 2014 remains the last edition in which they made it to the playoffs.