Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer has showered praise on Ricky Ponting for getting the best out of players at the franchise in IPL 2025. Iyer and Ponting had worked together in Delhi Capitals and had taken the franchise to the final of the tournament in the 2020 season.

The PBKS skipper revealed how Ponting made everyone comfortable and played a key role in the team’s success. Ponting is one of the best T20 coaches in the world and did a fine job with Iyer.

Meanwhile, Iyer scored 604 runs in 17 matches at an average of 50.33 and a blistering strike rate of 175.07 and thus led from the front in IPL 2025.

“Once you have a good coach, a positive coach, it’s his job to get all the players together and build that form of camaraderie. The gelling that we get together before the matches or the tournaments, it is basically given by the coach,” Iyer said in The Quest Talk podcast on YouTube.

“This year, when Ricky came in as the coach, he made everyone comfortable. He instilled the sense that every player belonged to this franchise. He was open and honest about whatever he said.”

“So, once you get that sort of feedback from your coach that you can come back and perform at the best of your abilities, you’re confident enough, and at the back of your mind, you feel very comfortable in the resting room and you can interact with everyone,” he added.

PBKS qualified for the IPL 2025 final but could not cross the last hurdle against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, suffering a six-run loss in Ahmedabad.

Iyer has been named as India A captain for two four-day matches against Australia A.