“Starting from game one, we’ve been in the mindset of wanting to win despite the situation. We’ve had players putting their hands up when we were in the dumps. Kudos to support staff and management too,” Shreyas said at the post-match presentation.
HYDERABAD: Shreyas Iyer, who led Punjab Kings in style and for a top-two finish in the IPL with an emphatic win against Mumbai Indians in Jaipur on Monday night, said that every individual stepped up at the right time.
“Starting from game one, we’ve been in the mindset of wanting to win despite the situation. We’ve had players putting their hands up when we were in the dumps. Kudos to support staff and management too,” Shreyas said at the post-match presentation.
“Ricky (Ponting – head coach) has been fantastic with player management, it’s important for me to get trust too. That happened with the wins early on. Had conversations with them too. You have to maintain good relationships throughout,” the India star said.
“I feel the dressing room has been top notch throughout. (Playing six uncapped players) The way Priyansh started was fabulous, young players are fearless. They tick the boxes in the nets, the effects of the preparations are now showing on the field,” Shreyas said.
“Inglis (Josh) is the only player whose position has been chopping and changing. Since he loves playing the new ball, I wanted him to play more deliveries. It worked wonders. We know he’s destructive and a big-match player with a great attitude,” he said.
“The camaraderie has been there for the past few years between Ricky and I, he gives me a lot of freedom. I tell him to do the thinking from the outside and then I execute on the field,” Shreyas said.
For his part, Ponting said he was very pleased with the result and reminded that a lot of hard work went into achieving it. “It all started from the auction, the big thing for me was to come to a new franchise and make a difference straightaway,” he said.
“It’s obvious to see that it’s a quality team, heading in the same direction. We haven’t done anything yet, that’s what I’ve been telling players, the big games are to come,” the former Australian captain said.
“Prabhsimran is young and has got 500 runs, I said may be four or five games in that Priyansh is one of the finds of the tournament. Hard to argue with now. Fearless young talent seeing and hitting the ball,” Ponting said.
“Overseas players – Inglis, Stoinis have been great. Shreyas has been outstanding. We’re a happy group, enjoyed each other’s company for ten weeks, got one more to go,” the Punjab head coach said.
“Pretty obvious I was keen to work with Shreyas considering how much I spent at the auction. We had a good working relationship in Delhi. I’ve known him for a long time. He’s a quality person. It’s what you need when you need to form a culture,” he said.
“Arshdeep’s great, Chahal should be back. If you speak to players individually, they’ll give Shreyas a good rap. We’ll celebrate tonight, we’ve done that after every game apart from the last one due to the short turnaround,” Ponting said.
“Jansen (Marco) is a high-quality individual, tough to replace him. Got Jamieson in tonight to ensure he got a game before Marco left. Every team’s missing players, we’d like to think we’ve got good depth and be able to cover for Marco despite it being a big miss,” he said.
