Ponting Highlights Shortage of Talent to Replace Maxwell and Ferguson, While PSL Is On

Punjab Kings have received yet another blow, which came in the form of Maxwell’s fractured finger injury. Along with Lockie Ferguson, Glenn Maxwell will also miss out on the remaining matches. During the toss, Shreyas Iyer said that they had not decided on the replacements yet, while their head coach, Ricky Ponting, later in the press conference, said that they would find replacements soon.

Maxwell’s Injury

Glenn Maxwell broke a finger in his right hand during the training session before the rained-out match against KKR on April 26. He also had some scans done, and the results were not good. Maxwell’s Australian and PBKS teammate, Marcus Stoinis, also confirmed that Maxwell broke his finger and is likely out of the tournament.

Shreyas said, “It’s very unfortunate that he’s got a fractured finger. To be honest, we haven’t decided about the replacements yet so far but we are pretty strong in our team’s mindset and what we have outside of our playing XI. We’ve got a variety of players who can win you matches. So we’re going to stick to that as much as possible.”

Lack of Replacements: Ponting Blames PSL

Lockie Ferguson (PBKS’s fast bowler) had sustained a serious injury earlier in April. This makes Glenn Maxwell the second player of PBKS to crash out of the tournament due to an injury. However, a replacement for either has not been named yet, but Ponting said they will do so soon.

“We will be signing some replacements at some stage,” Ponting said. “And with the PSL happening at the same time, there’s not a lot of high-quality replacements out there, to be honest. So we’ve just been patient.”

Ponting added,” We’re having a look around at Indian talent as well, and we’re looking at what roles we might be able to fill with some younger Indian players. We’ll actually take a couple of guys to Dharamsala with us, a couple of guys trained with us yesterday, and they will come with us to Dharamsala, we’ll have a closer look at them, and they might find themselves with a Punjab contract going forward. It has to be this week, has to be before the 12th game, so stay tuned.”

PBKS have almost a week to find these replacements, as Ponting said they need to name the replacements before the 12th match. Their 11th match is against Lucknow Super Giants on May 4, and the 12th match is against Delhi Capitals on May 8. Both these matches will be held in Dharamsala.

PBKS is currently in the second position in the points table with 6 wins, behind RCB.

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