Performance of uncapped players instrumental to our success: Ricky Ponting

Mullanpur, Ricky Ponting, who is getting john major credits for Punjab Kings' monolithic turnaround time in the IPL after years of letdown, feels their basal auction strategy and the performance of uncapped players allowed him to execute his coaching philosophy of playing "differently" this season.

Punjab Kings are in their first play-offs since 2014 but considering his world-conquering achievements, the Australian legend is not satisfied with finishing at the top of the league stage.

He has won the IPL title as player and head coach of Mumbai Indians but could not get his hands on the trophy while coaching the Delhi Capitals for seven season.

Before he signed up for the job at Punjab Kings, he made it clear to the owners that he wanted complete control over the running of the team.

The free hand given to him has produced instant results, starting from his auction strategy to retain only the uncapped duo of Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh.

In an interview to PTI ahead of the IPL play-offs, Ponting covered all areas that got the franchise much-needed success. Excerpts from the interaction.

Q. This has been a massive turnaround for this team after years of under-performance. What would you put that down to?

A. When you say this team, it's really this franchise, it's not this team, this team is brand new. Once I got the job, I wanted to make sure that things were different around this team, around this franchise and, we went with a slightly different passage into the auction with just retaining the two younger uncapped players and we copped a bit of criticism for that at the time.

People thought we got that strategy wrong, but I was very clear on the vision that I had where I wanted this franchise to go and we picked the appropriate players to give me the best chance of attaining the vision that I set out with. So far it's been a good season...The fact that I think last game against Mumbai Indians, we had six uncapped players on our side, all of which are playing exceptionally good cricketers.

This whole season so far hasn't been about qualification. We've talked a bit about giving ourselves the best chance to finish 1-2, and we know now that we've actually finished in first position on the table after the league stage. I've got a good feeling. This group's been terrific and not just the 25 players, we've all been in this together.

Q. Did you have a point to prove after not being able to win a trophy at Delhi Capitals for seven years though you did win one at Mumbai Indians?

A. I'm not sure if I had a point to prove. With the good squads that I had in DC, it was pretty evident to see where we made it with good players in that squad. We had three years in a row where we made the playoffs. One of those was into a final that Mumbai beat us in.

I made it pretty clear that when I accepted the head coach's job that I wanted to have pretty much full autonomy over the way that we go about the coaching staff and the way that we go about putting the strategy together with the auction, our scouts did a terrific job.

We got the players that we wanted, whether they'd be younger players or more experienced overseas players. And that's been shown so far that, with Maxwell and Lockie Ferguson getting ruled out early in the tournament, we've hardly skipped a beat.

Our Indian core has been terrific for us. And, our captain , as a leader he has been magnificent. So a lot of it revolves around that, the dynamic that he and I have together.

Q. You spoke highly about your uncapped players. Can any of them go on to play for India in the near future?

A. There is four of them who can. You look at Priyansh Arya. He has been a revelation for us at the top of the order. I must have watched, I don't know how many hours of video I watched on him going into the auction, but he was the one that I wanted to make sure that we got.

Prabh is probably the obvious one when you talk about playing for India. Still only 24 years of age. I read somewhere the other day that he's now got the most runs for an uncapped player in IPL history.

Wadhera is someone that I think could play for India as well in the middle order. And Shashank, you've only got to look at the cold, hard numbers with him. His strike rate and boundary percentage at the end of innings is as good as anyone going around.

So again, this year, he struck at 185 or something like that. All four of those guys could play. As I said, Brar's been outstanding for us, Vyshak is also on the radar.

Q. Following your chats with the owners and the management, were there any lessons learned from the failures of the past?

A. I did speak to the management. My big mantra this year was to be different, to make this place feel different, look different from the outside, you know, be really daring with the way that we play our cricket, be really dynamic and not sit back and wait for opportunities to arise to go and create opportunity and create momentum in games for ourselves.

I'm not a big media reader. I don't look at social media a lot. But what I've been hearing and the vibe I've been getting is that what we've been able to create around this team has been pretty cool.

The best teams and the best players that I've ever been involved in have never been satisfied and never been happy with what they've done. They always try and find a way to wake up tomorrow and get bigger and better and stronger.

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