Punjab Kings' head coach and legendary cricketer Ricky Ponting has shared his verdict, saying that he finds the franchise skipper Shreyas Iyer to be one of the frontrunners to replace Suryakumar Yadav as India's next captain in T20 internationals. Ponting believes that the competition between Iyer and others is quite stiff, but the PBKS captain stands out for showing a lot of maturity in his leadership.
Speaking of Iyer's demeanour in the Punjab-based franchise since the 2025 edition, Ponting reckoned
that the Mumbai-born cricketer is currently at the peak of his cricketing abilities. Despite several ups and downs, the 31-year-old has managed to maintain a high level of consistency and has also managed to come out with flying colours out of those situations, the veteran Australian cricketer added.
"I think there are several contenders, but he's (Shreyas Iyer) one of the main contenders as far as I’m concerned. I think we saw at the start of the tournament just how good a T20 player he is and where he’s at, both on and off the field right now," Ponting said as quoted by News18.
"I think he’s a much more mature player than he’s probably ever been in his whole career. I think he’s completely on top of his game now. He’s probably a good example of what I was talking about earlier; it’s really hard to maintain a high level of consistency through 14 games of cricket. There are going to be times when you have your ups and downs as an individual and as a team," he added.
Further adding about the slump in form over the last few league games in the ongoing IPL 2026, Ponting is fully confident of Iyer's abilities to bounce back and put up a show to make sure that the franchise is able to break into the top four while also getting close to lifting their maiden championship in the marquee T20 tournament.
"I’m pretty sure he’ll bounce back in this last game that we’ve got. If he stands up and makes a big score, then we’re a good chance of winning the game," he voiced.
Ponting also addressed the matter of how he has been left in a state of surprise whenever he has seen Shreyas being snubbed from the Indian squad in the shortest format of the game over the last couple of years. However, the former veteran batter also admitted the saturation of batters in the Indian team competing against Shreyas.
"I’ve been pretty vocal over the last couple of years that whenever India selects a team, and Shreyas is not in it, I’m always very surprised. On the back of this IPL, I’m sure he’s one name the selectors will talk about, not just to get back into the side, but also with the captaincy next to his name."
"The thing about Indian cricket is that you don’t just walk back into teams. You’ve got to put a lot of runs on the board and do it in a certain way. His season so far has been very impressive, and his captaincy has been excellent.
