IPL 2025: Ricky Ponting shares his take on Shreyas Iyer's test snub for England tour, says "this will inspire him to perform in playoffs"

Shreyas Iyer was among the top run-getters for Mumbai in the last season of the Ranji Trophy

Punjab Kings (PBKS) head coach Ricky Ponting shared his take on Shreyas Iyer’s snub from the Indian test team for the England tour. He believes that omission from the longest format of the game is inspiring the skipper of PBKS to perform in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. 

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently announced the Indian squad for the test series against the England Cricket Team. One of the big names that missed out was Shreyas Iyer, and it came as a massive surprise as he has been performing consistently in domestic cricket for Mumbai. 

Shreyas Iyer was among the top run-getters for Mumbai in the last season of the Ranji Trophy. He was expected to be part of the squad, but the BCCI went with Karun Nair ahead of him, and the batter had to face the unfortunate snub. 

However, this didn’t distract Shreyas Iyer as the batter went on to come up with even better performances in the ongoing IPL 2025. The right-hander has taken PBKS to the final of the tournament and played one of his best innings in the league against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Qualifier 2. 

Shreyas Iyer went past 600 runs in IPL 2025 as he played a blinder of an innings against MI. The right-hander slammed an unbeaten 87 runs and took his team to the win, taking them to the final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Narendra Modi International Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (3rd June). 

Ricky Ponting talked about Shreyas Iyer’s test snub, saying that he was gutted, but the batter has moved on really well. He added that PBKS skipper has real hunger in his eyes and he wants to develop into the best leader and captain. Speaking on ICC Review, prior to the IPL Playoffs commencing, he said: 

“I actually was gutted…but he’s accepted that really well and he’s moved on. He’s just got that real hunger in his eyes to do well every time that he plays for us here and wants to win games of cricket and wants to evolve and develop into the best leader and captain that he can be.”

I actually felt that he would get picked – Ricky Ponting on Shreyas Iyer not getting selected for England tests 

Ricky Ponting believes that Shreyas Iyer did nothing wrong to not get selected. He expressed his disappointment over the batter’s snub. But was hopeful that this would inspire the PBKS skipper to perform in the playoffs. He added: 

“Certain other players that have been picked in that (Test) squad have done it on the back of good first-class cricket and good IPL seasons leading up to that selection and Shreyas has done absolutely everything the same as some of those other players,”

“So I was disappointed that he didn’t get picked as I actually felt that he would get picked. But he didn’t. And I think that probably makes him a little bit hungrier for us when these playoff games come around,” Ricky Ponting concluded

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