Delhi: Punjab Kings (PBKS) are seen in action ahead of the mega auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. On September 18, the franchise appointed former Australian captain Ricky Ponting as its head coach. Just 8 days after Ponting's appointment, major changes have been seen in the team. The franchise has removed Director of Cricket Development Sanjay Bangar and Head Coach Trevor Bayliss from their posts.

According to a Cricinfo report, this decision was taken after an important meeting of the board members of Punjab Kings, in which four co-owners of the team participated. Through this change, the franchise wants to work on new strategies for the upcoming season.

Sanjay Bangar is a big name in Indian cricket, he has worked with the Indian cricket team for 5 years. At the same time, many teams have achieved success in international and franchise cricket under the coaching of Trevor Bayliss. Now it will be interesting to see in which direction the team will move forward under the leadership of Ponting.

Let us tell you that the Punjab Kings team has failed to make it to the playoffs of IPL for the last 10 years. Especially, the performance of the team has been very disappointing in the last two seasons, ever since Travis Bayliss took over the responsibility of the team as head coach in 2022. Punjab finished 9th in the points table in IPL 2024, while the team was at number 8 in the 2023 season. The poor performance of the team under the leadership of Bayliss raises questions, especially when the team could not perform better consistently.

Sanjay Bangar did a great job

In contrast, Sanjay Bangar has had a good experience with Punjab Kings. He was the head coach of the team from 2014 to 2016. After this, in 2021, he worked as a batting consultant for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), where he was promoted as head coach in view of his contribution.

In 2023, Bangar again turned to Punjab Kings and this time he was seen in the role of Director of Cricket.