Ricky Ponting has been appointed head coach of Punjab Kings franchise.
Ponting will replace Trevor Bayliss as PBKS head coach and work closely with Director of Cricket Development Sanjay Bangar in forming a new look Punjab Kings franchise for IPL 2025 onwards.
With the IPL auction approaching in November and teams debating their retention lists, Aakash Chopra commented on how Ricky Ponting's Punjab Kings will shape up.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, the former Indian opener discussed what he believed Punjab Kings would do with Ponting at the helm.
"What will you expect from Ricky Ponting? Firstly, I feel the gathering of English players there will be removed. Everyone will be sent, those bought for 18 crores or 12 crores. You won't have so many English players there now," said Chopra.
Chopra believes Ponting would avoid retaining Punjab's nucleus of English stars, which include Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow, and Liam Livingstone. Chris Woakes was also a member of the unit in 2024.
Furthermore, Chopra believes Ponting would target familiar Australian players at the auction.
“Now there will be some change there. Now you will have Australian players there. Ponting placed plenty of faith in his compatriots with Delhi, including David Warner, Marcus Stoinis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, and Mitchell Marsh over the years.
You will find that the Australian players in the Delhi Capitals camp will be released and some of them will become a part of Ricky Ponting's Punjab Kings. I am not saying he is biased but wherever you see Ricky, you find a slightly bigger Australian contingent there because he knows them well,” he added.
Punjab Kings will also look for a new captain as Shikhar Dhawan announced his retirement from international and Indian cricket recently.