Although the 2025 IPL season is still several months away, the contemplation and question marks around how it will shape up has already begun with off-season coaching moves catching the eye. Ricky Ponting’s announcement that he is leaving Delhi Capitals for the Punjab Kings is one of the notable changes, with the former Australian captain parting ways with Delhi after five years to join a franchise which has struggled in recent years.

With the IPL auction coming up in November and the teams pondering over their retention lists, Aakash Chopra weighed in on how he thinks Ricky Ponting’s Punjab Kings will shape up. Speaking on his Youtube channel, the former Indian opener pointed out what he thought was due for Punjab. 

"What will you expect from Ricky Ponting? Firstly, I feel the gathering of English players there will get 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.

However, Chopra sees Ponting avoiding retaining a core of English stars that Punjab possess, including Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow, and Liam Livingstone. Chris Woakes was also part of the unit in 2024. Moreover, Chopra also imagines that Ponting will aim for familiar Australian players in 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,” he added.

“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.”

Delhi will likely release David Warner, who lost his place to Fraser-McGurk, but might be inclined towards retaining the dangerous young opener. DC also had Marsh and pacer Jhye Richardson in their ranks, while Nathan Ellis was the only Aussie in the Punjab unit in 2024.

‘One more thing will change…’

Punjab are due for plenty of changes, with the franchise not having reached the playoffs since 2014. They had four consecutive sixth place finishes between 2019 and 2022, before regressing to 8th and 9th the last two seasons. Chopra expects wholesale changes for this season.

“One more thing will change, that is the number of captains that have been made. They have had 16 captains and the 17th one will be made this year. Now since Shikhar Dhawan has taken retirement, they will search for a new captain,” concluded Chopra.

Punjab Kings and Ricky Ponting will have big questions over the core of the team they will take into the auction, and the choices they will make there.

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