IPL 2025: PBKS Head Coach Ricky Ponting Blames PSL for Glenn Maxwell’s Replacement Delay

Punjab Kings have been dealt a major blow in IPL 2025. Captain Shreyas Iyer confirmed that star all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has fractured his finger and is likely to miss the rest of the season.

Maxwell picked up the injury during a practice session before the abandoned match against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 26. Initially, the damage didn’t seem serious, but scans later confirmed a fracture.

“He didn’t think it was too bad, but it ended up getting pretty bad,” teammate Marcus Stoinis said before the game against CSK. “The results weren’t great. So unfortunately for Maxi, I think he’s out for the tournament.”

At the toss before PBKS’s match against Chennai Super Kings, Iyer said, “It’s very unfortunate that he’s got a fractured finger.” He also mentioned that the team hasn’t finalized a replacement yet but remains confident in their squad’s depth.

“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 varieties of players who can win you matches. So we’re going to stick to that as much as possible,” Iyer said.

PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting added more details after the match. He confirmed that the team is still looking for suitable replacements, but finding one hasn’t been easy. One major reason is that the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is going on at the same time, which has limited the availability of overseas players.

“So we’ve actually been a little bit patient. Maxi’s only been a couple of days, Lockie’s has been two or three weeks. 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. 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,” he said.”

Ponting also explained that the team is looking at both foreign and domestic options. Players like Azmatullah Omarzai, Aaron Hardie, and Xavier Bartlett are already in the squad and could be considered based on pitch conditions, especially when they play in Dharamsala where the ball swings more.

The team is also keeping an eye on Indian uncapped players who have trained with the squad recently.

Punjab Kings must finalize their replacement list before their 12th match, scheduled for May 8 against Delhi Capitals. Their next game is on May 4 versus Lucknow Super Giants.