Credit: BCCI/IPL
Former Team India player Manoj Tiwary has claimed Punjab Kings (PBKS) won’t win the Indian Premier League (IPL) title as their head coach Ricky Ponting prefers overseas players over Indian cricketers. Against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), PBKS kicked off their innings extraordinarily riding on the courageous innings of their openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh. After the departure of both openers, the PBKS team management sent overseas players like Glenn Maxwell and Marco Jansen ahead of Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh, who are in fine form this season.
Taking to X, Manoj Tiwary asserted that Ricky Ponting trusted foreign players over Indian talents but the Australian’s decision didn’t bring desired results. Tiwary also added if Ponting continues his lack of trust on Indian players, PBKS won’t win this trophy this season. “My gut feeling says that punjab team will not be able to win the #IPL trophy this season because what I saw today when they were batting was, the coach didn’t send Indian inform batters Nehal wadera and Shasank singh, instead he trusted his foreign players to deliver, but they cudnt and clearly showed lack of confidence in Indian players down the order. If he persist in this way then the title is far from them irrespective of there qualification in top two, #KKRvsPBKS,” read Tiwary’s tweet.
IPL 2025 gets its first washed out game
The IPL 2025 game between KKR and PBKS at the iconic Eden Gardens got washed out. Earlier, PBKS won the toss and elected to bat first. Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh stitched a 120-run stand for the opening wicket off just 71 balls and helped the visitors to post a massive total of 201/4 in 20 overs.
PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer also scored an unbeaten 25 off 16 in the contest. KKR openers Sunil Narine and Rahmanullah Gurbaz came to bat and played the first over of the innings but rain interrupted and ended the match in no result.
