New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Suresh Raina, the former India cricketer and four-time IPL winner, said Shreyas Iyer’s positive influence as a captain-cum-batter has been somewhat different, resulting in Punjab Kings (PBKS) dominating against other teams in a never-seen-before fashion in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025.

Iyer, the IPL 2024 winning skipper for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), was acquired by PBKS in last year’s mega auction for a whopping Rs 26.75 crore. So far, PBKS’ move to break their bank for Iyer has paid off – the right-handed batter has amassed 405 runs in 11 games at an average of 50.63, including hitting four fifties.

As a captain, and having Ricky Ponting in the dugout as their head coach, Iyer has been astute and proactive in his leadership, resulting in PBKS being on 15 points and being in third place in the points table. The side now needs two wins out of their three remaining games to seal a spot in the playoffs for the first time since the 2014 IPL.

“I think their top two players, Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya, have laid the foundation for Punjab. After that, it’s all important in the way Shreyas Iyer has been batting well, and captaining the side,” said Raina to IANS on the Star Sports Press Room show, on the sidelines of the race to play-offs restarting with IPL 2025 now one day away from resumption.

“I’m sure Ricky Ponting is creating that environment, but if you look at their domestic players, Arshdeep (Singh), (Yuzvendra) Chahal, Priyansh, Prabhsimran, and the way they’re batting in the middle, especially the way Shashank Singh has been playing, they’re really batting differently. So when seven players play together, and all of them are playing for India, that makes a big difference,” he added.

“Also, the last three years of Shreyas Iyer – the quality in his batting is evident if you look at (his performances in) the ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy. The positivity from him is something different, as I’ve never seen the Punjab team dominate so much in the IPL. When Viru Bhai (Virender Sehwag) was the captain, he played in a different way in the qualifiers in 2014.”

“But Shreyas Iyer brings in quality in the dressing room. He brings in positivity and the desire to win. So I think Ricky Ponting and Shreyas Iyer have improved (the team) a lot, and they’re playing a different brand of cricket – Punjab Express,” said Raina

Iyer’s case has been very interesting – he captained KKR to the IPL title last year, and now he has a chance to win it again, but this time for PBKS. Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar said to IANS that he hopes Iyer’s leadership skills help PBKS clinch the elusive trophy when the IPL 2025 final takes place on June 3.

“That (PBKS’ great run) actually tells you the importance of captaincy because look, the coach is in there and he does come at the strategic time-out – the coach and the support staff. But at the end of the day, the decision in a split second has to be taken by the captain, and for that, I think you’ve got to give credit to Shreyas Iyer for the way he led last year because they were in a tough situation.”

“But he got them out of a tough situation to go on to win, and I think he’s doing exactly the same over here. They’ve had a bit of bad luck, if you might call it that, because they started very well in the game at Dharamshala (which was later called off). They were 124-1 in 10 overs (123/1 in 10.1 overs) there, and that’s a fabulous start.”

“Then again, at the Eden Gardens, they had scored about 206 or 207 – most often a winning score, but the game got rained off. So yes, they’ve had a little bit of luck not going their way. They’ll be hoping that it turns around this time,” said Raina.

Catch Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders resume their race to the play-offs at 7:30 PM on Saturday, when IPL 2025 returns live and exclusively on JioHotstar and Star Sports Network.

–IANS

nr/bsk/