Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody, who has also served as head coach of the Sri Lankan men’s cricket team, Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the past, has credited captain Shreyas Iyer and head coach Ricky Ponting for Punjab Kings’ super show in IPL 2025. Punjab Kings have won 7 out of 11 IPL matches played so far in the ongoing season, and with 15 points, they are third in the points table. The Mohali-based franchise, which is co-owned by Bollywood actor Preity Zinta, needs to win one of their remaining three league matches to qualify for the IPL playoffs for the first time in 11 years. In the 2025 edition of the world’s richest franchise league, PBKS players have impressed with their performances in all three departments of the game, and according to Moody, the credit for PBKS’s success goes to Iyer and Ponting. The former Australian captain was signed as head coach by PBKS in August 2024 after he parted ways with Delhi Capitals in July last year. In the IPL 2025 mega auction, PBKS signed Iyer for Rs 26.75 crore. The 30-year-old cricketer from Mumbai is the second most expensive player in IPL history. During an ESPN ESPNCricinfo show when asked what changed for Punjab Kings in IPL 2025, Moody said, “Leadership, simple as that. You’ve got a significant figure in Ricky Ponting, who has that presence, and he came in there and obviously made it very clear during the process of him being engaged as the coach that you’re going to do it my way. And I think that cleared a bit of a path of maybe other distractions that may have come in historically with Punjab that we’ve seen and been frustrated with.” “And I think the recruitment of the captain, Shreyas Iyer, who is someone that’s very familiar with Ricky Ponting – they’ve worked well together – so I thought that was a really smart play,” he added. According to Moody, Iyer has impressed him with his leadership qualities, and he feels he has a similar relaxed approach in captaincy like MS Dhoni. “One of the most important things is leadership in T20 cricket is not only the presence of the leader but just their strategic sort of presence out in the middle and the calmness out in the middle. And Iyer, to me, is someone that has really been impressive. How calm he seems to be out in the middle and how he seems to empower the people around him. And I’m not comparing him to MS Dhoni, but MS Dhoni is the gold stamp of that, and Iyer seems to have a similar sort of quite a calm, relaxed approach out there.” Punjab Kings will next take the field on Sunday (May 18). Their 12th league match is scheduled to take place at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur against Rajasthan Royals.