 "Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting with captain Shreyas Iyer at a training session at Kolkata's Eden Gardens during the 18th season of the Indian Premier League. PTI")
Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting has blamed the Pakistan Super League for his team’s inability to secure high-quality replacements for their injured players in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League . Ponting’s PSL comment came shortly after Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was ruled out of the remainder of the IPL season due to a fractured finger on Thursday.
It’s not just Maxwell who will be sitting out of the remainder of the season. New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson made four appearances this season before limping off after bowling just two deliveries in the away game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 12 April.
While Maxwell, who missed Wednesday’s match against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk at Chepauk, is confirmed to miss the remainder of the season, Ferguson has been ruled out “indefinitely” for now though chances of him making a comeback in the business end of the season appear highly unlikely.
How the ongoing PSL is affecting IPL franchises
The only issue for PBKS, however, is getting quality replacements for the two overseas signings thanks to the 10th season of the PSL that got underway on 25 April and is set to run till 18 May – eight days before the 18th IPL season comes to an end.
While the Pakistan Cricket Board’s flagship T20 event normally takes place in the months of February and March, it got delayed to the April-May window due to the ICC Champions Trophy that was hosted by Pakistan from 19 February to 9 March, with India playing all of its matches in Dubai.
“So we’ve actually been a little bit patient. Maxi’s only been a couple of days, Lockie’s has been two or three weeks. And with the PSL happening at the same time, there’s not a lot of high-quality replacements out there, to be honest. So we’ve just been patient. We’re having a look around at Indian talent as well and we’re looking at what roles we might be able to fill with some younger Indian players,” Ponting said after PBKS defeated CSK by four wickets to complete a season double against the five-time champions.
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More ShortsPBKS has a ‘couple of guys’ in mind as potential replacements, says Ponting
The former Australia captain added that the Kings’ support staff has had a look at a “couple of guys” who trained with the squad ahead of the match at Chepauk and will be traveling to Dharamsala, where they face Mumbai Indians in their next match this Sunday. Teams in the IPL are allowed to make changes to their squad until the 12th match of the league phase, which in Punjab’s case is their upcoming match against Mumbai.
“We’ll actually take a couple of guys to Dharamsala with us, a couple of guys trained with us yesterday (Tuesday) and they will come with us to Dharamsala, we’ll have a closer look at them and they might find themselves with a Punjab contract going forward. It has to be this week, has to be before the 12th game, so stay tuned,” Ponting added.