'Petition to change Punjab Kings name to...': Australian media reacts as Ricky Ponting creates 'mini-Australia' in PBKS

Ricky Ponting, the experienced cricketer and former Australian captain, has been enlisted as the coach of Punjab Kings, a franchise owned by Ness Wadia and Preity Zinta. In his new role, Ponting has been granted a significant budget to participate in his first auction with the team. This financial support offers him the opportunity to construct the squad from the ground up, as the Punjab Kings aim to rejuvenate their roster and compete for their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) championship.

With full discretion to buy players as he saw fit, Ponting certainly splurged on domestic Indian talent such as Shreyas Iyer, purchased for 26.75 crore to captain the team, as well as Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal, who joined for 18 crore each. However, with plenty of money in the bank with Punjab having begun the auction with over 110 crore in the purse with only two retentions, Ponting was also able to turn to some reliable deputies from his home country.

Punjab and Ponting bought as many as five Australian players during the auction, headlined by the returns of experienced internationals Marcus Stoinis (11cr) and Glenn Maxwell (4.20cr) to the team. However, the former Australian captain went back for even more Aussie talent, bringing on board an exciting opener in Josh Inglis, another powerful bat for the top order and an all-rounder with Aaron Hardie, and wrapping up proceedings with the purchase of pacer Xavier Bartlett.

In all, Ponting’s Punjab spent 19.85 crore of their total purse on Australian players, as they fill up the majority of the maximum cap of eight overseas players that IPL teams are allowed. Marco Jansen, Amartullah Omarzai, and Lockie Ferguson make up the rest of the overseas players, with Ponting opting to go with players familiar to him in an Aussie-heavy auction.

This is not the first time that Ponting has chosen to go for Australians en masse with an IPL auction, having done so with Delhi Capitals and even receiving criticism for his hesitation in trusting international players of other nationalities. Ponting’s insistence to go with his choice of players was one of the sticking points preceding him parting ways with DC.

In his seven seasons in Delhi, Ponting employed Australian players such as Stoinis and Maxwell, plus big roles for David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Daniel Sams, and Jake Fraser-McGurk, as well as providing bit-part roles for Steve Smith and Alex Carey.

Ponting also went for pacers Spencer Johnson and Nathan Ellis in the auction, also losing out on opener Fraser-McGurk as DC RTM’d his services at 9cr.

It will be interesting to see what combination of players Ponting chooses in Punjab, with only three of the five Aussies likely to start and the final overseas spot being taken up by tall South African all-rounder Marco Jansen.