Punjab Kings Announced Shreyas Iyer As New Captain For IPL 2025

The Punjab Kings (PBKS) franchise has finally announced their new captain for the IPL 2025. Shreyas Iyer will lead the side in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The decision came after Shreyas Iyer led KKR to their 3^rd IPL title in the 2024 season and won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) season as captain recently. Iyer captaining PBKS means a re-union of a coach-captain duo of Ricky Ponting and Shreyas Iyer. Both individuals have worked together in the Delhi Capitals (DC) franchise.

IPL 2025: PBKS named Shreyas Iyer as their new captain

On expected lines, Punjab Kings (PBKS) has made Shreyas Iyer the captain of the franchise for the IPL 2025. It was expected that Shreyas Iyer has led KKR to its 3^rd IPL title in the last season. He has also won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with Mumbai as captain. Iyer also became the 4^th highest run-scorer in SMAT 2024 with 345 runs in 8 innings. He averages 49.29 and has a strike rate of 188.52 in SMAT.

PBKS didn’t have many options for captaincy anyway. They have Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell in the team who have done captaincy jobs in franchise cricket (for Melbourne Stars in BBL), but Iyer was a more obvious choice as per the situation. Iyer is a recent IPL-winning captain, won SMAT with Mumbai, and that too an Indian captain, that is preferred by the IPL franchises.

Iyer announced his captaincy role for PBKS in Big Boss

PBKS didn’t announce Iyer’s captaincy role for IPL 2025. Rather, Shreyas Iyer himself announced his captaincy role for PBKS in IPL 2025 in a reality show called ‘Big Boss’. The reality show is hosted by a film star Salman Khan and Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Shashank Singh made their presence in the show. All three are a part of the PBKS team for IPL 2025.

Iyer said he is honored that the franchise has shown faith in him. He is also looking to work with Ponting again. Iyer is hopeful that the team will win their maiden title.

“The team looks strong, with a great mix of potential and proven performers. I hope to repay the faith shown by the management to deliver our maiden title.” – Shreyas Iyer said in a release (quoted).

Iyer-Ponting Captain-Coach duo back with PBKS

Shreyas Iyer captaining Punjab Kings means a comeback of a captain-coach duo of him and Ponting. Both individuals have worked together as captain and coach in the DC franchise. Iyer was made the captain of DC in the middle of the tournament in 2018. After that, DC made it to the playoffs in the next three seasons, including reaching their first-ever IPL final in 2020.

Ricky Ponting has coached DC during that period when Iyer led the side. Now, both will work together as coach-captain in Punjab Kings in IPL 2025. Ponting has praised Shreyas Iyer and his captaincy capabilities.

“Shreyas has a great mind for the game. His proven capabilities as captain will enable the team to deliver. I have enjoyed my time with Iyer in the past in IPL, and I look forward to working with him again. With his leadership and the talent in the squad, I am excited about the seasons ahead.” – Ricky Ponting said.

PBKS appointed Ricky Ponting as their head coach for the next four years. Before that, he has coached DC and MI in the IPL.

3^rd IPL franchise for Iyer becomes the 2^nd most expensive player in IPL

Shreyas Iyer started his IPL career with DC in 2015. He played for the franchise till 2021 before joining KKR in 2022. He missed IPL 2023 due to injury but led the franchise to a title-win in 2024.

Now, PBKS bought him for a whopping INR 26.75 crore. The franchise won the bidding war in the IPL 2025 auction against DC, who were also going after Iyer. For a while, he becomes the most expensive player in the IPL. After Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bought Rishabh Pant for INR 27 crore, Iyer became the 2^nd most expensive player in the IPL.

PBKS retained only 2 players, went with the highest purse in the IPL 2025 auction

PBKS has only retained two uncapped players, Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh before the auction. They went with the highest purse in the auction and made a whole new team. PBKS bought some of the star players like Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Glenn Maxwell, etc. They also have some of the young guns like N Wadhera, Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, etc in the team.

Punjab Kings squad for IPL 2025:-

Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer(c), 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, Pravin Dubey.

Conclusion

So this is the latest update from PBKS. Iyer was expected to become PBKS’ captain. He has had a good run with the bat and in the captaincy in the last few months, having won the IPL, SMAT, and Ranji Trophy (as a player). He is doing well with the bat in Vijay Hazare as well and will look to continue his form in CT 2025 and IPL.

FAQs:-

(1) How many captains have won the IPL titles?

A total of 8 captains have won the IPL titles. Those are Shane Warne, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, David Warner, Gautam Gambhir, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, and Adam Gilchrist.