Legendary Australian captain Ricky Ponting has opened up his thoughts on the recent IPL retention. He also revealed the names of the players, which surprised him for non-retentions. 

The IPL retention deadline has seen many surprise exclusions. However, many of those were expected. Some of the teams have even excluded their top names, which will force them to set a new culture in the team.   

Former Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting is now working with Punjab Kings, who have retained only two uncapped players. While it wasn’t a shocking retention theory for the team, as they haven’t played the IPL playoffs for the last 10 seasons, they will play a big role in the upcoming mega auction with the remaining purse of INR 110.50 crore. 

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It was a bit surprising: Ricky Ponting

Talking about the IPL retentions, Ponting is surprised with Delhi Capitals, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, and Lucknow Super Giants. 

Ponting said, according to Indian Express, “I’m a bit surprised with some of the non-Indian retentions if you like, with both Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant being available in the auctions. It was a bit surprising, even KL Rahul to a certain degree. It seems like individuals or franchises are busy looking to move in different directions to some of their players.” 

Shreyas Iyer was the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, who won the IPL 2024 trophy. On the other hand, since the IPL 2016 auction success, it was the first time that Delhi Capitals released their latest captain Rishabh Pant. As Ponting was the recent head coach of Delhi Capitals, he is very surprised by Pant’s exclusion. 

In the meantime, KL Rahul was the captain of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Under his leadership, LSG qualified for the playoffs in their first two seasons (2022 and 2023), where Krunal Pandya played the stand-in captain role in the 2023 edition during Rahul’s absence in the almost second half of the season.

In the IPL 2024, LSG failed to reach the playoffs as they finished in the seventh position. Although they had the same points as the fourth-placed team, LSG’s net run rate was very low. 

Ponting about IPL retention and auction

Ponting also opened up about why IPL retention and auctions make the game more exciting.    

Ponting said, “This is where it gets exciting. You’ve got to understand who your number one target is and how much money you are willing to pay for them. That’s such a big part of it (IPL), of getting the auction right strategy-wise. And then handing it over to us, as a group of coaches.”