2 min readMar 13, 2026 05:37 PM IST
Punjab Kings reached their second Indian Premier League final last season since the inception of the tournament. The franchise that made some changes going into the previous season, such as bringing in Ricky Ponting as the Head Coach and Shreyas Iyer as the captain, saw some remarkable improvement in the way they performed. Brad Haddin, who is part of the coaching staff at the franchise, lauded Ponting’s contributions, and also spoke about the 15000 fans that were on the streets to witness skipper Iyer and left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh.
“We had a really successful year last year, Ricky Ponting came into the Kings franchise, and put his mark on it straightaway. We have uncovered some superstars of Indian cricket; they stood up, and now we have the opportunity to build on that,” Brad Haddin said on the Willow Talk Cricket Podcast.
“Well, it’s carnage, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. It is an exciting chaos, that is a way to look at it. Every game means so much to so many people. You are playing in front of a packed crowd, but you are also driving through another 15,000 people on the streets just wanting to get a glimpse of Arshdeep Singh or Shreyas Iyer. They are just superstars of the game over there,” Haddin said.
PBKS have retained the core of the side that reached the IPL final last season and come into the auction with just over Rs 11 crore in their kitty and signed Cooper Connolly (Rs 3 crore), Ben Dwarshuis (Rs 4.40 crore), and Pravin Dubey (Rs 30 lakhs).
PBKS full squad:
Arshdeep Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Singh Pannu, Harpreet Brar, Lockie Ferguson, Marco Jansen, Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Owen, Musheer Khan, Nehal Wadhera, Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Shashank Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Xavier Bartlett, Yash Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Pravin Dubey
