Ricky Ponting Appointed Punjab Kings Head Coach

Punjab Kings name the former Australian captain as their head coach for the upcoming four seasons of the lucrative Indian Premier League

Ponting led the Washington Freedom to title victory this year /

By Ian Omoro

On Tuesday, Australian legend Ricky Ponting was named head coach of the Punjab Kings, taking Trevor Bayliss' position. The former Australian captain has moved from the Delhi Capitals, where he spent seven years, to the Punjab Kings.

The Delhi Capitals rose to prominence under Ponting, and although they made it to the final in 2020, they were never able to win the coveted championship. He was the Mumbai Indians' coach as well.

The four co-owners of Punjab will be hopeful that the World Cup-winning skipper leads his team to victory, as they have failed to win an IPL since the league's founding in 2008.

The only time Punjab made it to the finals was back in 2014, and they are one of the teams that gets the most flak for always switching things around. They ended earlier this year ninth out of ten teams and have not even placed in the top five in the last seven seasons.

For the previous two seasons, Bayliss led the team captained by the now-retired Shikhar Dhawan. Sunil Joshi looked after the spinners, Charles Langveldt was the coach for quick bowling, and Sanjay Bangar oversaw cricket development. Before Bayliss, the Punjab Kings were coached by Anil Kumble, although they never achieved success.

Despite having a solid core in Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Kagiso Rabada, Jitesh Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, and Jonny Livingstone, Punjab has not seen success. The only truly memorable players for the Punjab Kings this season were the uncapped Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma.

"We are delighted to have Ricky on board to guide and build our team for the next four seasons. Our success will be greatly dependent on his capacity to advance his leadership and cricketing abilities,” Punjab Kings CEO Satish Menon stated.

This year in US-based Major League Cricket, Ponting led the Washington Freedom to title victory.

Additionally, he has led the Big Bash League team Hobart Hurricanes of Australia as head of strategy since 2021.

During his playing career, Ponting amassed 13,378 Test runs in 168 games. He also amassed 13,704 runs in 375 one-day international matches.