Do Punjab Kings (PBKS) have what it takes to go all the way in the IPL this time? Nick Knight and Varun Aaron feel there's a "real confidence" in the side and that's because of the "good system" put in place by captain Shreyas Iyer and coach Ricky Ponting. Knight was also impressed with how Indian players have contributed to their two wins this season.
"The whole campaign started off with Ricky Ponting saying 'this is my team and I'm going to approach in a certain way' and it was very clear that he didn't want any outside interference," Aaron said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show. "This is what happens when somebody like Ricky Ponting and Shreyas Iyer join forces to work together, both [are] IPL winning captain and coach. I think this is a really good system working for this team at the moment."
PBKS defended 244 in their first match of the season against Gujarat Titans (GT) and it was mainly due to the contributions from Shreyas, Priyansh Arya and Shashank Singh. In the second match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), they chased down 172 with Prabhsimran Singh, Nehal Wadhera and Shreyas once again orchestrating the win.
"...you look at their team line-up and think they've won two games quite well - this one [against LSG] certainly comprehensively," Knight said. "Overseas players haven't played a major part in that. So [there's] contributions from Indian players. Captain's like a rock. He looks so calm. He looks so authoritative. The team is playing exactly how his mentality is playing out along with the coach Ricky Ponting.
"A lot of talk about that, but early stages of a tournament when you've got a captain and a coach trying to mould the team, all these guys when they know each other so well, you can see that there's a real confidence around the camp."
PBKS have a strong overseas line-up too, but the wins coming without their help is a big bonus, Knight said.
"You know [Glenn] Maxwell, [Marcus] Stoinis, [Lockie] Ferguson, [Azmatullah] Omarzai, whoever it's going to be, you know they're going to play a major part, win a game or two and have a major contribution along the line. So you put that in the back pocket and say, 'Well, that's going to happen at some point. So if we're winning games without them, we're in a pretty good place'. That's as much I see from that performance. That is a really confident start for them based on some of their major players yet to make a major contribution."
Aaron likened PBKS' temperament, especially during the first game, to that of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians, highlighting how they kept calm even when GT threatened to take the game away.
"If you just remember over the years they [PBKS] have had an uncanny knack of losing tight games from winning situation," Aaron said. "But the first thing they did with the first game was get that big monkey off their back - which is not lose that game - because the moment fans see Punjab losing another game like that, they're like, 'Oh my God, this is again going to be the same thing'.
"But they really stuck to their plans last game they showed a lot of calm under pressure, which Punjab has not shown before, which is like a very CSK or a very Mumbai thing, where they like pulling off games right at the death. So that was a great start, I think the start is really important and this game is a statement kind of a game."