BCCI Sent Big 'Shreyas Iyer Message' As Unheard IPL Story Emerges: "Didn't Get Enough Credit"

Shreyas Iyer failed to clinch the IPL 2025 title with Punjab Kings but his captaincy earned him a lot of praise from experts as well as fans. The Indian cricket team batter emerged as the top scorer for his franchise, and his knock against the Gujarat Titans in the Eliminator was a special one. Shreyas became the only captain ever to play the IPL final with three separate franchises as a captain, and that has put him in the conversation for India's white-ball captaincy. With India playing their next white-ball series against Bangladesh, PBKS assistant coach Brad Haddin sent a huge message to the BCCI.

“You do all your planning for the game and at the stadium in Ahmedabad, everything says bat first. The analytics and the match-ups go through your team stuff, everything says bat first. And this is where our captain hasn't got enough credit, and I hope, when they come down to pick an Indian captain, they really start to consider Iyer. He was outstanding throughout the whole tournament. We say to him, 'Yep we are batting first.' But he goes, 'No, we're bowling.' Punter goes, 'okay let the captain make the choice.' He then said, 'No, I'll win the game and I'm going to bat second. Everything leads to batting first, but we bowl. Then the captain comes out in the second innings and plays one of the best knocks in IPL I have ever seen and gets us into the final,” he said. 

Punjab Kings (PBKS) head coach Ricky Ponting praised the team's efforts in the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after his side went down to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 6 runs in the final clash by at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Despite losing the title, the Kings' coach praised the team's performance in the season and highlighted how the Punjab Kings were an entertaining team throughout the tournament.

"The way that we've been able to play our cricket, it's been a highly entertaining team to watch, and that for a coach to be able to sit back and talk about a team that way gives me a lot of satisfaction. You can probably look at it tonight and say it was probably a little bit of inexperience in the middle order that cost us. But what I know is that we are going to have these younger guys (Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Nehal Wadhera) with us for a long, and I think they're going to win us a lot of games going forward," Ponting said at the post-match press conference, as quoted from a release by PBKS.

(With ANI inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

Shreyas Iyer Brad Haddin Punjab Kings Cricket