Ahmedabad: Victories are joyous but defeats can be sapping. Negative emotions after a big defeat can sometimes last months. Very often, the analysis centres around ifs and buts. However, Ricky Ponting, head coach of IPL runners-up Punjab Kings, chose to look at the larger perspective.

“It was only a couple of days ago that we were here celebrating one of our great wins for the season to get into the final, and today we probably feel that we let one slip. But, with this group being as young as it is, we’ll be back bigger and stronger next season,” said Ponting. “I made it clear when I was appointed head coach that I wanted to make sure things were different. I wanted to make sure things were done in a certain way, and that’s from the top, from the owners to the head coach all the way down to the bus driver.

”Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The Kings had only retained Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh going into the mega auction but built a squad that came within six runs of winning the IPL.

“I wanted to make significant changes and I think we’ve managed to do that. If you ask the players, you ask any of the staff involved in this campaign, I think they’d say that it’s been a really enjoyable time. With only two retentions at the auction table, to be able to build a group like we have...

all the scouts and all the management (was) involved,” the former Australia captain said.

“Retaining Prabhsimran and Shashank allowed us to go in with a big budget. So I started at the top with the captain, Arshdeep and Chahal, and those guys. But to build a team, you’ve got to build around experienced players as well. So, once we locked those experienced players in the first part of the auction, then it was about picking the right young talent to make our franchise different and dynamic,” he added.Who's that IPL player?About the match, Ponting said, “It was probably a little bit of inexperience that cost us.”