Punjab Kings announce Shreyas Iyer as captain for IPL 2025

Punjab Kings (PBKS) announced India batter Shreyas Iyer as their captain for the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025) on Sunday, January 12. The announcement was made on the television show Big Boss hosted by Bollywood actor Salman Khan as Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shashank Singh were the special guests of the episode.

Punjab broke the bank to have Iyer onboard during the IPL 2025 mega auction as they shelled out a whopping Rs 26.75 Crore to have him in their squad. They faced stiff competition from Iyer’s old teams, namely Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Delhi Capitals (DC) as the three franchises got into an intense bidding war to sign the India star.

Eventually, Punjab won the bid and were delighted to have Iyer on their roster as he became the most expensive player in the history of IPL auction until being surpassed by Rishabh Pant a few minutes later. In Punjab, Iyer will work alongside head coach Ricky Ponting, batting and fielding coach Brad Haddin and spin bowling



coach Sunil Joshi.

The 30-year-old will head into the season riding high on confidence, having led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to their third IPL title in 2024. The right-handed batter had a good season with the bat as well, having scored 351 runs from 14 innings at an average of 39 and a strike rate of 146.86 with two half centuries.

Iyer’s first stint as an IPL captain was in 2018, when he replaced Gautam Gambhir as the skipper of Delhi Capitals midway through the season. Under his leadership, Delhi reached the playoffs after seven years in 2019 but got knocked out in the Qualifier 2 after losing to Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Iyer further led Delhi to their first ever IPL final in 2020 but lost to Mumbai Indians (MI) in the summit clash. Despite his good tenure as a captain, Delhi appointed Rishabh Pant as their skipper in the 2021 season replacing Iyer. Later in 2022, Iyer was bought by KKR, whom he led for two seasons and won them one title as well.