Aakash Chopra Predicts Changes In Punjab Kings: Former Indian cricketer-turned-broadcaster Aakash Chopra predicts the changes that Australian Ricky Ponting will make as the new head coach of the Punjab Kings franchise ahead of IPL 2025.
Ricky Ponting the player needs no introduction. Not only was he one of the greatest batters of all time across formats, but he also captained Australia through what was the most dominant phase a national team went through across the 2000s.
But Ponting as a coach is a little different. After retiring from on-field competition in 2013, the 49-year-old started coaching several franchise teams across the world. He was the head coach of the Mumbai Indians from 2014 to 2016, lifting the IPL title in 2015.
For the last seven seasons (from 2017), ‘Punter’ has been the head coach of the Delhi Capitals. In this period, the Delhi-based franchise reached the playoffs three times, even playing in the final against MI in 2020 in a losing cause.
But after his contract with the team expired after the 2024 season, it was not renewed. But then, the Punjab Kings swooped in and picked Ricky as their head coach. This position was previously held for two seasons by Trevor Bayliss.
With Ricky Pontin coming in as the new team coach, it is expected that he will make several changes in the squid, especially seeing that a mega-auction is coming ahead of next year’s season.
Aakash Chopra Predicts Changes In Punjab Kings
Aakash Chopra on his YouTube channel recently released a video where he predicted what Ponting will do with the PBKS franchise. He believes that now the team will stop gathering a big contingent of English players.
“What will you expect from Ricky Ponting? Firstly, I feel the gathering of English players there will get removed. Everyone will be sent, those bought for 18 crores or 12 crores. You won’t have so many English players there now. Now there will be some change there. Now you will have Australian players there,” he said.
Punjab Kings have had a strange fascination with English players over the past few seasons. First, they signed Sam Curran for a then-record Rs. 18.5 Crore in 2023. The team also has Liam Livingstone, Jonny Bairstow, and Chris Woakes in their squad.
Aakash also predicted that Australian players in Delhi Capitals will be released and will be bought by the Punjab Kings, suggesting,
“You will find that the Australian players in the Delhi Capitals camp will be released and some of them will become a part of Ricky Ponting’s Punjab Kings. I am not saying he is biased but wherever you see Ricky, you find a slightly bigger Australian contingent there because he knows them well.”
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