It was Shreyas’ move to promote Josh Inglis, says Ponting

For the record, Inglis’ 30 off 14 balls including three consecutive sixes of fast bowler Mayank Yadav, set the tone for the powerplay in which PBKS hit 66 for 2.

Hyderabad: “It was captain Shreyas Iyer’s call to promote Josh Inglis to No. 3, a slot where he wants to ‘mark’ himself in the IPL,” Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting said after his team drubbed Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday night in Dharamsala.

For the record, Inglis’ 30 off 14 balls including three consecutive sixes of fast bowler Mayank Yadav, set the tone for the powerplay in which PBKS hit 66 for 2.

Lucknow, chasing 237, lost by 37 runs.

“Shreyas thought on that sort of pitch, against that bowling attack, that it would be the right thing to, if a wicket fell early, to send Inglis in. We felt that Mayank would bowl early on,” Ponting said.

“If you look at the way he bowls, he (Mayank) generally bowls reasonably short. And that’s one of Inglis’ great strengths, as you saw tonight. Those pull shots were pretty amazing straight away,” he said.

“This move also allows us to have Iyer, Wadhera and Shashank through the middle of the innings, which is what we thought would be crucial for us in tonight’s game as well,” Ponting said.

“So we bat really, really deep and it allows our top order to play with a lot of freedom. And they did that tonight. And, you know, to bat first and get that sort of total was a great effort,” he said.

The Australian great was all praise for Prabhsimran Singh, who scored 437 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate of 170.03 this season.

“He’s been brilliant, hasn’t he? You know, him and Priyansh have got us off to some great starts in the tournament,” Ponting said. “They both, you know, before today had both made 350 runs each for the tournament. I sort of challenged both of the openers in the team meeting today for one of them to go on and get a hundred in this match,” he said.

“And unfortunately, Prabh felt just a little bit short of that. But look, all we’ve done with our batting group, we’ve just given some
really clear direction of the way that we want them to play, to understand how important, you know, top-order partnerships are in this competition. And we know that if Priyansh and Prabh get going together, that they can be ultra-destructive,” Ponting said. “They complement each other really well, being left hand, right hand, and one probably being slightly better against the quicks and another against spin. So look, it’s a really good, really good combination,” he said.