No Such Thing As An Off-season; Shreyas Is One Of The Best Minds I've Seen: Trevor Gonsalves

No such thing as an off-season; Shreyas is one of the best minds Ive seen: Trevor Gonsalves (Image Source: IANS)

With Indian Premier League: A franchise like Punjab Kings used to be perpetually trapped in the cycle of mid-table rebuilds till a grand change at the top happened in 2025. Under head coach Ricky Ponting and captain Shreyas Iyer, PBKS reached the summit clash, but fell short of the trophy.

Their quest to win the title began brightly in 2026 before an unbeaten run in the first half made way for six straight losses. Though they won their final league game against Lucknow Super Giants, the unimpressive second half meant PBKS finished right outside the first four spots in the points tally.

With Indian Premier League (IPL) 2027 still a fair bit away, PBKS have hit the ground running in terms of preparations via an ongoing off-season camp in New Chandigarh. In an exclusive conversation with IANS, Gonsalves breaks down the reasoning behind off-season camps, different needs of players to keep themselves sharp and match-ready, evolution of the franchise, 'positive-only' leadership of Shreyas Iyer, and more. Excerpts: -

Q. What are the core objectives you are trying to achieve through this off-season camp?

A. As of today, I really don't see anything as off-season. Cricket is being played throughout, and you may be aware that even the Sher-e-Punjab is starting in a few days, and we carry a few Punjab players with us. Many more state leagues are also on, or about to start.

You have the Kerala Premier League and had the Andhra one getting over. Now you have the UP Premier League, and it's really about keeping the players in shape and keeping them in touch. We also look forward to our players performing in all these tournaments that are coming up.

At the same time, you've also seen that a few of our players have been elevated and gone up to the Indian side. So, it's about keeping them fit and in touch with the game. It's good that we come around for a week or so in a period of 25 or one month or so. So, it's a good period that's carrying on going up to the IPL.

Q. This camp features the likes of Prabhsimran Singh, Shashank Singh and Nehal Wadhera. How do you tailor individual technical work for these players who are at very different stages in their careers?

A. Well, see, it is not about the drill sessions at this moment. It is about, again, all the names that you mentioned are all professional cricketers, right? So, Prabh is about to play for the side in a few days. Shashank is ironing out a few of his problems that were there earlier on and is still trying to be in shape, and the same with Nehal.

So, we have a specific mode now with only six or seven guys here around. We are giving them all the phases that usually come in the game. So, that's how we are going about it. It's not about being too specific about anything. But yes, they are having their own plans. We are executing a few plans and a few match scenarios. Well, I am in one-to-one touch with Ricky. Ricky is aware of everything that's going on, and he gets a report on a day-to-day basis.

Q. You've been with the team since the 2022 season. What sort of shift has happened from 2025 in terms of personnel, mindset and ethos of the Punjab Kings?

A. Going back to when I joined in 2022, when Trevor Bayliss was also the coach, I think it's about picking and getting into the right combination. The most important part that I see is about the home players and the picks in the overseas brackets. The person that we have in command now, Ponting, has been around for a decade.

He's been around for a very long time, and he's an excellent, excellent person who knows all the players in and out. Being with the IPLs and various franchises for so long. So, he knows everyone in and out. That cuts our problems a lot in picking the right players for the right spot.

Now, as of today, we boast of a team that can really do this - we have two sets of players. We have a backup for every single player on this team. So, even if one player goes down, the next player is always ready there and is as good as the first player applying to the eleven. So, it's really about picking the right slots, getting in the right players, and then working on it.

Q. At PBKS, there’s a lot of faith shown in young Indian batting talent like Prabhsimran, Wadhera and Priyansh Arya since 2025. How do you see this trend?

A. We in India have totally different wickets compared to what we have overseas. If it's in England or in Australia, the wickets in India can be really challenging. It's the same as when an Indian player goes out; it's very challenging for them because, year-round, and when you speak about the Indian batsmen, yes, it's very difficult for an outsider to come and settle on the Indian wickets.

It’s because you can have less bounce, you can have a little bit of turn, you can have a little bit of grip on it, which is usually not the case on English and Australian wickets. So, really, yes, the Indian players form the majority of the great IPL teams that are there now. If you notice, the better the Indian players, the better the team performs, with due respect to the overseas players and all of them. But yes, you have to have a strong Indian batting line-up for me. That's it.

Q. Shreyas Iyer's leadership at PBKS so far has been a revelation, and he now captains India in T20Is? What makes him a standout skipper?

A. Shreyas and Ricky have been working for a long time now, even before coming to Punjab Kings. When they both got here, and now when you're talking about Shreyas, Shreyas is totally an amazing personality, and the biggest thing is he's such a good listener. When I talk about communicating with Shreyas, he's such a good listener that any single person in the team- he may be the 25th person in the team- can just go out and speak to Shreyas, and this guy will always have time for you.

He will always have time for you. Shreyas is one of the best minds I have seen in cricket so far. What a level-headed guy, and a good head on your shoulders. He's one person who backs every single player, and the best part I like about him is that in the meetings or at personal levels or in the field or at practice, you can't speak a negative line.

However bad the situation is, you've got to take out a positive line from it and speak it if you want to. But there is no speaking negatively when any player or anybody is concerned, and Shreyas is in front of you. It's got to be positive. If the feedback is there, it's got to be positive. So that's a very good thing.

He is only talking positively and well. Nothing more than that. Yes, mistakes do happen, and everyone realises that a mistake was made. So you don't need to go up to his face and tell him that you made a mistake. They are all mature and highly experienced players. So that's a very good point that I like about Shreyas. He is an amazing human being, has very good ears, and is always ready to hear you out.

Q. From a coaching perspective, how critical are these camps in keeping players sharp compared to just monitoring them during the domestic season?

A. Not all the players are international players, and not necessarily all the players play domestic cricket. So now, if we don't have these camps, a lot of players would be missing out on really good cricket. We know that if a player has to practice alone in his hometown, we don't know the quality of wickets he's going to get there.

What is the quality of the bowlers he's going to face there? Or if he's a bowler, what quality of batsmen is he bowling to? Will he get that quality of balls that we are providing, the Kookaburra balls? Maybe not. So it is more about facilitating these players and getting them ready, because the remaining players who come from overseas or international cricket or state duties are ready.

So what about the players who are not in the state category and international side? It's more important for them as well. These are the reasons why we have planned this now. This season is going to be alarmingly long for us because we have a terrific, terrific schedule in place. We have a lot of camps coming up, and these camps really do help because it's all about coming together, meeting the person, trying to understand what's going on in his mind.

It's not only all about cricket. It's all about the mindset and the frame of mind that he's in. How is he going? What's his body language? How positive is he? What's his attitude? A lot is being worked on also on their mindsets, and having these camps off and on is really, really important. We know time flies, and very soon we'll be into the 2027 season.

So what about the players who are not in the state category and international side? It's more important for them as well. These are the reasons why we have planned this now. This season is going to be alarmingly long for us because we have a terrific, terrific schedule in place. We have a lot of camps coming up, and these camps really do help because it's all about coming together, meeting the person, trying to understand what's going on in his mind.

A. You can speak and get away with it. But data is the truth. You can't run away from the data. The data shows what the person has done, and I wouldn't say that we are 100 percent reliant on it. But yes, data in today's life plays an important role. We can't run away from the data. The data speaks volumes, and we do rely on it. Yes, data does have an important place as far as we are concerned, and yes, data helps.

Article Source: IANS