Ricky Ponting, head coach of the Punjab Kings (PBKS), addressed the squad's injury situation after Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was ruled out of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) with a finger injury.

Maxwell broke his finger during training, becoming the second PBKS player to be injured since New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson suffered a season-ending injury at the opening of the tournament.

On Wednesday, PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer disclosed that they have still to select who will replace Ferguson and Maxwell.

"It's very unfortunate that he's got a fractured finger.To be honest, we haven't decided about the replacements yet so far, but we are pretty strong in our team's mindset and what we have outside of our playing XI. We've got varieties of players who can win you matches. So we're going to stick to that as much as possible," Iyer said during the toss for PBKS's match against CSK.

He had 48 runs in six innings, including single-digit scores in each of his last four games. He had been bought for INR 4.2 crore at the last mega auction.

However, following the encounter against CSK, Ponting indicated that "we will be signing some replacements at some stage."

However, Ponting blamed the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) for the lack of qualified replacements.

"So, we've actually been a little bit patient. Maxi's only been a couple of days; Lockie's has been two or three weeks. And with the PSL happening at the same time, there's not a lot of high-quality replacements out there, to be honest. So we've just been patient. We're having a look around at Indian talent as well, and we're looking at what roles we might be able to fill with some younger Indian players,” Ponting said in a chat with commentators of official broadcasters.

“We'll actually take a couple of guys to Dharamsala with us; a couple of guys trained with us yesterday, and they will come with us to Dharamsala. We'll have a closer look at them, and they might find themselves with a Punjab contract going forward. It has to be this week; it has to be before the 12th game, so stay tuned," he added.

Punjab Kings must complete their replacement signings before their 12th IPL match. On May 4, they will play their eleventh match against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). PBKS will play their 12th match against the Delhi Capitals on May 8. The squad has a week to decide on replacements.