Shreyas Iyer wants to ‘mark’ himself at number three this IPL

Was desperate to work with Iyer

Ponting was all praise for Iyer at the media interaction.

Punjab had retained only two players ahead of the mega auction where they built a squad full of match winners including Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell and Marco Jansen.

“I was desperate to work with Shreyas again. We had a great working relationship at Delhi over a long period of time. He’s one of the best players that I’ve worked with,” the former Australia captain said.

“He’s a great human being. He’s an IPL-winning captain. You couldn’t ask for much more. He’s only joined the camp a couple of days ago. So he’s starting to make his mark on the team as a captain and as a leader. We’ve put a great squad together. As you know, the captain-coach relationship in any team is vital. And I know that we’ve got a really good strong one here,” said Ponting.

The Australian great stressed on the importance of winning at home, something Punjab Kings have not been able to do in recent years.

“What I understand is that if you are not winning at home, you are not winning the IPL,” Ponting put it in simple terms.

“It’s one of the main reasons that I’m sitting here now. I wanted a really strong coaching challenge. And we’ve got that. But there’s no pressure on us. What have we got to lose? (having never won). We’re going to go out and play a really dynamic and entertaining brand of cricket. And I know we’ve got the players that can do that.”

Punjab Kings play Gujarat Titans in their IPL opener in Ahmedabad on March 25.