Preity Zinta Denies Insulting Rishabh Pant Amid LSG Captain Row: ‘So Sorry but…’

Preity Zinta Denies Insulting Rishabh Pant Amid LSG Captain Row: Bollywood actress and Punjab Kings co-owner Preity Zinta slammed as "fake news" the suggestions that she was pursuing Shreyas Iyer over Rishabh Pant during the IPL meg auction last year. An X user named Gurlabh Singh claimed that Zinta had apparently referred to Pant "a big name" and current PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer "a big performer" when she said Pant did not wish to be picked by PBKS in the auction next year.

"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"." tweeted the user.

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Zinta denied making the insulting comments on Pant and called them ‘Fake news.’ Zinta termed the remarks about Pant "fake news."

That user did not counter Zinta's ‘fake news' but suggested that PBKS was such a funny owner that it could be hitting back at Pant for those comments. "Ma'am, if Rishabh Pant can sit with Vikrant Gupta and Sanjiv Goenka on international TV and say anything about our Punjab Kings, then why can't we say the same?

"Bhai gussa to aata hi hai chahe Rishabh Pant bhi Apna hi hai, lekin Rishabh Pant ko Punjab Kings ke bare me nahi bolna chahiye that," he wrote in his next two comments.

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One of the most-wanted players in the mega auction, Pant was bought for a whopping amount of ₹27 crore by LSG, after leaving the Delhi Capitals. Days post-mega auction, Pant declared that he had only one "tension" while watching the mega auction and that related to Punjab Kings, clearly indicating that the keeper-batter did not want to go to PBKS. "Andar se, mereko bas ek hi tension thha, woh hai Punjab (Deep within, I only had one tension that was regarding Punjab)," Pant said in an interview in the presence of LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka when asked about the bidding war for him in the auction.

PBKS didn't even bid for Pant since they had acquired on their kitty Shreyas Iyer for an exorbitant amount of ₹26.75 crores just a moment ago.

But this incident was not taken lightly by the people of Punjab. In fact, when PBKS emerged victorious against LSG in the IPL 2025 series, Punjab's social media handle targetted many of Pant's comments to hit back at LSG in a series of tweets. A lot of their tweets used "tension" as connecting keywords and started rolling on, following the cheap dismissal of Pant by Glenn Maxwell.

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