The Punjab Kings will be looking for a new era under their newly appointed head coach, the great Aussie Ricky Ponting who ended his tenure with the Delhi Capitals ahead of IPL 2025. Having featured in all 17 seasons of the IPL, but their performance has not been impressive with their only final appearance back in 2014.
The Punjab Kings have retained only the likes of their two uncapped players, Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh, for a minor INR 9.5 Crores combined, while they will enter the purse with a huge INR 110.5 Crores.
Shikhar Dhawan, the veteran PBKS skipper retired from all forms of cricket including the IPL, hence alongside their squad full of players they would also be in quest for a skipper for the upcoming season.
They have not thought of retaining the likes of veteran players like, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran and also Liam Livingstone. Alongside many other teams, they will be among the 5 teams in the quest for a new captain, who could lead them to a maiden IPL title.
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Top 3 Choices as PBKS skipper for the IPL 2025 mega-auction:
Faf Du Plessis
Faf, the veteran Protea batsman, who despite retiring for a long time from international cricket, has been a true legend playing in global cricket leagues across the world. Faf who led RCB back in 2024 since 2022, when he took over RCB’s captaincy from Kohli and led them to two playoffs has been left out by Royal Challengers this time around.
Recently, captaining the St.Lucia a subsidiary of Punjab Kings, Faf led them to their maiden title in the Caribbean Premier League. He can be considered a supreme option as a skipper in the IPL as well for the Punjab Kings.
David Warner
Skipper and Warner? Yes possible, as Cricket Australia finally took the captaincy ban off from David Warner. Warner has been assigned the role of a skipper for the upcoming Big Bash League 2024-25 where he will be seen captaining the Sydney Thunder.
Warner can be said to be one of the most successful overseas captains in the IPL, as he is among the three foreign skippers who have led their respective franchises to an IPL title. Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and David Warner, surprisingly only three players and every one an Aussie has won an IPL title as an overseas skipper.
Sighting Warner’s brilliance with SRH as a skipper, and also his vast experience alongside his crucial role to score runs up the order, David Warner can undoubtedly make the cut for Ricky Ponting and PBKS.
Rishabh Pant
The Delhi Capitals have finally ended their long association with the Indian star cricketer. The franchise which didn’t part ways with him despite his absence due to injury, has now decided to send him into the mega-auction.
Pant will undoubtedly be one of the most anticipated assets for teams in the mega-auction. Pant’s record-breaking fantasy as a wicket-keeper batsman, he has been in sublime form for India across formats as well.