'I told Buchanan there's something about him' - Ricky Ponting recalls how Ashok Dinda impressed him in IPL 2008 nets

As the Indian Premier League (IPL) completed 15 years of its inception, former Australian captain and one of the members of the first Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squad, Ricky Ponting, recalled some fond memories from the inaugural season of the cash-rich league.

The Delhi Capitals franchise, currently coached by Ponting, shared a compilation video where former cricketers like Shane Watson and Ajit Agarkar, alongside Ponting, talked about some interesting stories from the first season. Ricky Ponting reminisced about the first game of the mega event and talked about a player who impressed him during the net sessions.

“Ashok Dinda was a net bowler for us at Kolkata, and for 7-10 days, he literally ran in and bowled bouncers at all of us for every session. And I ended up saying John Buchanan that ‘there is something about this guy, let’s give him a contract.’ And he ended up getting one. I think he took maybe the first three wickets as well of the IPL, and that was the start of what ended up being the 12 or 13-year career for Ashok Dinda in the IPL,” said Ponting in the video shared by Delhi Capitals.

Dinda hadn’t made his international debut when the Knight Riders roped in the gun pacer from Bengal. Dinda had a good stint in the first season as he scalped nine wickets at an economy of 6.67. Throughout his IPL journey, he represented various franchises like Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals), now-defunct Pune Warriors India, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant.

It's been 15 years since Talent met Opportunity💙

To celebrate the inception of the #IPL, we caught up with some special people to reminisce the inaugural 2008 season with us 🤩#YehHaiNayiDilli | #IPL2022#TATAIPL | #DelhiCapitals | @RickyPonting @ShaneRWatson33 @imAagarkar pic.twitter.com/3O14U4CWUM

— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 18, 2022

Ricky Ponting shares his memories from the first match of the inaugural season

The former Australia captain also recollected memories from KKR’s season opener against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, which was the inaugural game of the cash-rich event. He also opened up about Brendon McCullum’s fiery knock of 158*(73).

“We didn’t really know about the tempo of the game or what the score was going to be. Brendon was opening the batting, and I was batting at three and got off to an unbelievable start. It seemed like everything he hit had just flew off the bat. I was trying to slow him down a little bit, and he was going harder and harder and ended up playing an incredible innings. What better than seeing the first game of the tournament than someone going out there and getting 158,” Ponting  said,