'Promoting Inglis was a move Shreyas came up with' - Ricky Ponting credits PBKS skipper on promoting batter at No.3

Ricky Ponting and Josh Inglis. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Shreyas Iyer’s decision to promote to No. 3 resulted in their clinical 37-run win over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Dharamsala. Head coach Ricky Ponting credited Iyer’s call as a turning point, which saw PBKS climb to second place in the IPL 2025 points table, breaching the 15-point mark for the first time since their 2014 campaign.

The decision to send Inglis up the order was to tackle LSG's pace attack. Inglis took the responsibility with both hands as he smashed three huge sixes and a boundary off Mayank Yadav in his cameo of 30 runs off just 14 balls. His fireworks helped the hosts finish with an explosive powerplay, scoring 66/2.

"It was actually a move that the captain came up with. He thought on that sort of pitch, against that bowling attack, that it would be the right thing to, if a wicket fell early, to send Inglis in. We felt that Mayank would bowl early on. If you look at the way he bowls, he generally bowls reasonably short. And that's one of Inglis' great strengths, as you saw tonight. Those pull shots were pretty amazing straight away," Ponting said of Inglis' promotion at his post-match press conference.

Meanwhile, Prabhsimran Singh stole the show with a brilliant 91 off 48 balls, smashing six fours and seven sixes. Though he nearly missed out on his second IPL century, his Player-of-the-Match performance helped post their highest-ever total against LSG of 236 for 5.

"Yeah, look, he's been brilliant, hasn't he? You know, him and Priyansh have got us off to some great starts in the tournament. They both, you know, before today had both made 350 runs each for the tournament. I sort of challenged both of the openers in the team meeting today for one of them to go on and get a hundred in this match. And unfortunately, Prabh felt just a little bit short of that. But look, all we've done with our batting group, we've just given some really clear direction of the way that we want them to play, to understand how important, you know, top-order partnerships are in this competition. And we know that if Priyansh and Prabh get going together, that they can be ultra-destructive," Ponting added. 

We bat really deep and it allows our top order to play with a lot of freedom: Ponting

Furthermore, Shreyas chipped in with 45 off 25, and the middle order, including Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh, capitalised on the solid start. Punjab’s deep batting lineup, with players like Marcus Stoinis and Azmatullah Omarzai coming in late, gave them the allowance to attack from ball one.

"It then also allows us to have Iyer, Wadhera, and Shashank through the middle of the innings, which is what we thought would be crucial for us in tonight's game as well," Ponting said. "So, yeah, I mean, it was probably a surprise call for LSG to see him [Inglis] go out [at No.3] and it paid off for us tonight. So once we got off to a [start], I think we were 70-odd at the end of the powerplay, all the momentum was going with us. You see with our batting, you know, we've got someone like Azmatullah [Omarzai] at No.9. So we bat really, really deep, and it allows our top order to play with a lot of freedom. And they did that tonight. And, you know, to bat first and get that sort of total was a great effort," the head coach further added.

In reply, LSG had a poor start to their chase as they were suffering at 73/4 by the halfway mark, and they eventually ended on 199/7. Although Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad provided some hope, but lack of support from other batters saw them end up on the losing side.