IPL auction

New Delhi: It was surprising when Delhi Capitals showed the exit door to its head coach Ricky Ponting and captain Rishabh Pant. Ponting’s departure was more discussed than Pant’s. The player will still be bought in the auction, but if the world’s all-time best captain will be different as a coach, then he might not come back soon. However, Ponting joined Punjab Kings soon after his departure from Delhi. He is not jobless, but Mohammad Kaif, who was part of his coaching staff, has now made such a revelation about him, which may blow the senses of the management of the team owned by Preity Zinta. In fact, he told that Ricky Ponting has The old strategy regarding retention has been adopted. He released most of the players of the team, while the team has a purse of Rs 110 crore. He will now form a new team for Punjab, while the players who could have been retained and would have been better for the team are no longer a part of his dugout. Along with this, Mohammad Kaif made a shocking revelation about Shikhar Dhawan.

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He told that in the auction held after the 2018 IPL, Sourav Ganguly and Delhi owner Parth Jindal wanted to include Shikhar Dhawan in the team, but Ricky Ponting was against it. However, according to Ganguly and Parth, the team traded Shikhar Dhawan in exchange for Vijay Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem and Abhishek Sharma. Kaif told that Ponting was influenced by his countryman David Warner. Warner probably told him that now Dhawan’s career is over. Both had opened for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He was not concerned with how big a player Shikhar Dhawan is or how much cricket is left in him.

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Well, Ponting did not work and Shikhar Dhawan joined the team. After this, Dhawan scored 521 runs for the team in 2019, 618 including a century in 2020, and 587 runs in 2021. That means scoring more than 500 runs in every season. This is the reason why the team reached the Delhi Capitals final in 2020. Here he had to face defeat from Mumbai Indians. Regarding this, Kaif said- The credit for bringing Ashwin to the Delhi team also goes to Sourav Ganguly. Ricky Ponting knows how disappointing it is if you don’t win a trophy in a 6-7 season.

Kaif also said about Ponting’s game plan – Ricky Ponting is of the stature of the great Sachin Tendulkar. However, I’m not a big fan of their game plan. This is why if any franchise says goodbye to him, then you can understand what their game plan would have been.