Recently Punjab Kings shared a video on Facebook in which one can see Ricky Ponting speak of a hearty meal. It appears the food has been cooked by PBKS opener Prabhsimran Singh’s mother. Head coach Ponting gives rave reviews about the home-cooked food items in reply to the wicketkeeper batsman’s question: “How was the food?”

But then he says something which shows the happy, optimistic side of him. He says last year the same thing had been done, and afterwards Prabsimran’s form reached greater heights as he went on to score many fifties in a row.

“Absolutely beautiful (the food). So we did this last year. I asked Prabh and his mum last year to come do the same thing, and it was magnificent. And guess what happened after this time last year? I think Prabh got five 50s in a row, I hope the same thing happens again,” the Aussie said.

It appears the video was recorded a few days back. Prabhsimran has since scored back-to-back fifties. First, he got 51 against Sunrisers Hyderabad and then a couple of evenings ago, he scored a terrific 39-ball 80 not out against five-time champions Mumbai Indians. One can see Ponting has been on point with his optimism.

As is the norm nowadays, IPL teams do have a short get-together to discuss their performance on the day. After thrashing Mumbai Indians, Ponting was effusive in his praise of Prabhsimran, whose innings went a long way towards PBKS comfortably chasing down 196.

“The batting, I’m not starting to run out of appreciation for what we’re doing, but dear, we’re batting well. Prabh, I need to praise you because you didn’t get a lot of strike during the Powerplay. Most of your hard work had to be done outside of it, but you were so skilful, so calm, and so calculating. You’re batting as well as I’ve ever seen you bat,” Ponting said.