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Punjab Kings signed as many as five Australian players in the IPL 2025 mega auction for a sum of Rs 19.85 crore.
Five Australian players will play for PBKS in IPL 2025. (Picture Credit: Sportzpics)
In the recently concluded IPL 2025 mega auction, which took place in Jeddah, Mohali-based IPL franchise Punjab Kings signed as many as 23 players for Rs 110.15 crore. Of those 23 players, five of them were Australians. PBKS splashed Rs 11 crore to secure services of batting all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, and Glenn Maxwell will play for PBKS in the IPL again after being signed by them for Rs 4.20 crore.
In addition to the duo, PBKS also signed wicketkeeper-batter Josh Inglis, all-rounder Aaron Hardie, and pacer Xavier Bartlett for Rs 2.60 crore, Rs 1.25 crore, and Rs 80 lakh, respectively. Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who joined PBKS as head coach in August 2024, tried to sign opening batter Jake Fraser-McGurk as well but failed to achieve the objective as the Delhi Capitals used an RTM card to sign him back for Rs 9 crore.
After the mega auction was wrapped up, an Australian broadcaster took a dig at Ponting, saying that the Punjab Kings should change their name to “Australian Kings.”.
https://x.com/7Cricket/status/1861229228156723460
In the mega auction, PBKS, which entered with a purse of Rs 110.50 crore, signed Indian left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh via RTM for Rs 18 crore, IPL 2024 winning team captain Shreyas Iyer for Rs 26.75 crore, and IPL’s all-time leading wicket-taker Yuzvendra Chahal for Rs 18 crore.
The three other overseas players signed in the mega auction by PBKS are South Africa’s Marco Jansen (Rs 7 crore), Afghanistan all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai (Rs 2.40 crore), and New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson (Rs 2 crore).
No matter what others say, Preity Zinta appeared to be quite happy with the new-look Punjab squad.
“We wanted to start completely new, some hits and misses, but most of them were hits with what we wanted. No auction ever happens where you think these are the names that we want 100 percent. If you can get above 90 percent, that’s a great auction. And we got about 90% of what we wanted,” she said after the mega auction.
Ponting, who previously served as the head coach of the Delhi Capitals, perhaps loves to work with players of his own country. During his tenure, the Delhi squad had several Australians, including David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, and Alex Carey.
