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Punjab Kings (PBKS) co-owner and Bollywood actor Preity Zinta pointed out the misinformation that has been circulating on social media about the franchise's IPL 2025 auction strategy after the team's five-wicket win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
Zinta reacted to a post circulating on social media claiming that Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain Rishabh Pant doesn't want to join Punjab Kings. She responded to a viral post on X (formerly Twitter), Zinta labelled the claims as fake news, putting an end to speculation about the team choosing Shreyas Iyer over Rishabh Pant due to performance-based preferences.
The controversy began when an X user alleged that Zinta and the PBKS management had picked Iyer over Pant, on terms of a big performer, not a big name. The post cited a fake quote by Zinta.
"Rishabh Pant had said in an interview that I could go anywhere but not to Punjab Kings. But now Punjab owner Preity Zinta exposed Rishabh Pant and said, WE HAD BOTH RISHABH PANT AND SHREYAS IYER- OPTIONS WE COULD HAVE TAKEN IN THE TEAM. BUT WE WANTED A BIG PERFORMER, NOT A BIG NAME...SO WE TOOK SHREYAS IYER IN THE TEAM," the user wrote.
However, the PBKS owner responded to the claims and called the fake. "I’m so sorry but this is FAKE NEWS" she wrote.
Coming back to IPL 2025, Rishabh Pant was picked by Lucknow Super Giants in the mega auction for their captain. He is currently facing a lot of criticism for not performing well in the IPL 2025. Pant managed to score just 103 runs in seven innings, including a fifty that came against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the rest of his innings are forgettable, including two ducks.
On the other hand, Shreyas Iyer continued his purple patch in the ongoing edition of the tournament. PBKS, who struggled in recent years, is performing well and is currently at number 2 in the points table. PBKS recently featured against RCB, where they registered a five-wicket dominating win at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
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