India and Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer, the second most expensive player in the player auction, has been named captain of the Punjab Kings for IPL 2025. The announcement was made on Sunday night on the reality show Big Boss, where Iyer appeared as a guest alongside PBKS teammates Yuzvendra Chahal and Shashank Singh.
Iyer, 30, is among eight captains to win the IPL, a feat he achieved by leading Kolkata Knight Riders, whom he led from 2022 to 2024, to the title last year. PBKS, which had the strongest purse in the mega auction for IPL 2025, beat Delhi Capitals, another franchise looking for a captain, to bag Iyer for INR 26.75 crore (approximately USD 3.18 million). For a few minutes, Iyer was the most expensive player in IPL history. But Lucknow Super Giants picked up Rishabh Pant for Rs 27 crore (approximately $3.21 million) to make it the most expensive buy in an IPL auction.
PBKS will be Iyer’s third franchise in the IPL after DC, with whom he debuted in 2015, and KKR. Midway through the 2018 IPL, DC appointed Iyer as their captain and he made the playoffs in each of the next three seasons, including a runners-up finish in 2020. He also led Mumbai to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy this season and finished fourth among the tournament players. Leading runs with 345 runs, including a century, in nine innings at a strike rate of 188.52 and an average of over 49.
Iyer will be reunited with former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, who was appointed PBKS head coach for four years. The pair had a successful partnership as DC’s coach-captain, which Ponting said was a key factor behind PBKS bidding so fiercely for Iyer in the auction.
Ponting also gave strong hints about Iyer’s appointment as captain after the mega auction. “I wanted to work with Shreyas,” Ponting said. star sports after the auction. “I’ve worked with him before and he’s a great guy and a great player. He’ll be a great leader for our team if we decide to go that route, which I’m pretty sure we probably will. And obviously, he was the championship-winning captain the year past, so there are a lot of wonderful things about bringing it to Punjab.”
