The legendary Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting said that he was surprised to see Shreyas Iyer display impressive batting skills during the first ODI of the England tour of India 2025.
He made a solid stand smashing 59 runs off 36 deliveries which helped India win the match by 4 wickets.
After the match, Shreyas Iyer revealed that he was supposed to sit out the Nagpur ODI, but Virat Kohli‘s absence has brought him into the playing 11. The revelation came as suprise to may, with the likes of Aakash Chopra expressing his disbelief.
On #TheICCReview, Ricky Ponting was all in on India’s returning batter to light up the #ChampionsTrophy 👊https://t.co/7Uasa7eh3U
— ICC (@ICC) February 7, 2025
Speaking to the ICC review, Ponting felt that the 30-year old outing in the World Cup 2023, would have helped him cement his spot in the Indian lineup.
Shreyas had scored 530 runs in 11 matches with 2 hundreds and 3 fifties. “I’ve been a little bit surprised that he’s been out of India’s side in the last couple of years.”
“He had a terrific World Cup back in India (2023) where he played beautifully in the middle-order and I actually felt then that he’d almost cemented that spot and made that his own,” said Ponting.
“Then he had those couple of injuries, obviously injured his back and went out of the side, but his domestic season this year has been brilliant.”
“It sort of coincided with what he’s done since around (IPL) auction time going forward in domestic cricket, he has been pretty much outstanding,”
Ponting also tipped Shreyas to be a hit for India during the Champions Trophy as the play all their matches in Dubai.
“He’s got the game that will stand up to the white-ball formats, especially in that part of the world,” Ponting said.
“On those wickets — the slower, lower wickets — he’s dynamic on those. We know how good a hitter of spin bowling he is and teams tend not to bowl a lot of spin at India, but at some stage it’s going to come.”
Ponting and Shreyas Iyer will be working together in the Punjab Kings for the IPL 2025. the veteran batter joined the franchise for a price INR 26.75 crore and has been appointed as PBKS captain.
“If Shreyas is out in the middle, then he’s as good as anyone. So, I’m delighted to see him back in the team,” said Ponting.
