Shreyas Iyer, who skippered Kolkata Knight Riders last season, was roped in by the Punjab Kings at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction at Abady Al-Johar Arena in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
The Kings splurged a whopping Rs 26.75 crore on Iyer, making him the second-highest paid player in IPL history.
Ricky Ponting, Punjab Kings coach, said, “I haven’t spoken to him (Shreyas Iyer about captaincy) yet. I tried to call him before the auction, but he didn’t pick up. He’s been a successful captain in the IPL before; I worked with him 3-4 years in Delhi, and he was the championship winner last season. I’m delighted to work with him again; if he can do that for us in the IPL, I’ll be pretty happy.”
In IPL 2024, Shreyas amassed 351 runs across 14 matches with a strike rate of 146.86.
Notably, he became the first Indian captain to lead two different teams to an IPL final, having previously guided Delhi Capitals to the summit clash in 2020.