Shreyas Iyer, the batter, has done enough in the last few months to prove his worth. It’s now time for Shreyas the captain to pad up for the challenges.

It’s not that he has not proved his captaincy credentials in the past. Having led the Kolkata Knight Riders to the title last year, nobody will dare doubt Shreyas’s leadership skills. But then, it’s also a fact that the Knights did not retain their trophy-winning captain before last year’s mega-auction.

So Shreyas will be itching to flaunt his captaincy skills when he leads out his new team Punjab Kings to the ground on Tuesday for th­eir first match of the season, against hosts Gujarat Titans.

Punjab have an almost entirely new set-up this year. Be­sides a new captain in Sh­reyas, they also have a new head coach — Ricky Ponting. The squad too is full of new faces with Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh, Arshdeep Singh and Harpreet Brar being the only ones who were with them last season.

Coach Ponting has set the goal for his new squad — besides ending their title wait, the former Australia captain wants this side to be the greatest Punjab Kings team ever. They have some good players who can help them in doing that, but there are a few issues as well.

While Shreyas’s presen­ce bolsters their middle or­der and having the options of Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Shashank in the lower middle order give them the muscle to maximise the death overs, they do not have an impressive opening pair. Prabhsimran might open with Australian Josh Inglis and it remains to be seen how effective they are. But on the bowling front, they have two trusted T20 specialists in pacer Arshdeep and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

The Titans, on the other hand, hope to turn around this season after a forgettable outing last year. They have a good top three with Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler and Sai Sudharsan all being class performers with the bat. The bowling too is strong, especially the pace department. Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna make an excellent attack, complemented by master spinner Rashid Khan.