"Shreyas Iyer Brings In Positivity And Desire To Win": Ex-India Star Praises PBKS Captain

Suresh Raina, the former India cricketer and four-time IPL winner, said Shreyas Iyer's positive influence as a captain-cum-batter has been somewhat different, resulting in Punjab Kings (PBKS) dominating against other teams in a never-seen-before fashion in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Iyer, the IPL 2024 winning skipper for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), was acquired by PBKS in last year's mega auction for a whopping Rs 26.75 crore. So far, PBKS' move to break their bank for Iyer has paid off - the right-handed batter has amassed 405 runs in 11 games at an average of 50.63, including hitting four fifties.

As a captain, and having Ricky Ponting in the dugout as their head coach, Iyer has been astute and proactive in his leadership, resulting in PBKS being on 15 points and being in third place in the points table. The side now needs two wins out of their three remaining games to seal a spot in the playoffs for the first time since the 2014 IPL.

"I think their top two players, Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya, have laid the foundation for Punjab. After that, it's all important in the way Shreyas Iyer has been batting well, and captaining the side," said Raina to IANS on the Star Sports Press Room show, on the sidelines of the race to play-offs restarting with IPL 2025 now one day away from resumption.

"I'm sure Ricky Ponting is creating that environment, but if you look at their domestic players, Arshdeep (Singh), (Yuzvendra) Chahal, Priyansh, Prabhsimran, and the way they're batting in the middle, especially the way Shashank Singh has been playing, they're really batting differently. So when seven players play together, and all of them are playing for India, that makes a big difference," he added.

"Also, the last