India, March 30 -- Punjab Kings will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against Gujarat Titans in New Chandigarh on Tuesday, with Shreyas Iyer set to start another season as the centrepiece of a side rebuilt around him during the 2025 mega auction. The franchise appointed Ricky Ponting as head coach in September 2024, retained only Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh ahead of the 2025 auction, and entered the auction with the league's biggest purse.

That reset gave Punjab the room to chase a leader aggressively, and Ponting made it clear that Iyer was not a secondary option.

"When I got this role and realised that Shreyas was going into the mega auction, I made sure I had enough money in my purse to be able to buy him at the auction. I was ...