Preity Zinta denies insulting Rishabh Pant to hit back at LSG captain for not wanting to join PBKS: 'So sorry but...'
Priety Zinta denied making the insulting comments on Rishabh Pant and called them ‘Fake news.’ "I am sorry, but this is fake news," she replied.
Bollywood actress and Punjab Kings co-owner Preity Zinta dismissed claims of willingly going after Shreyas Iyer instead of Rishabh Pant in the IPL mega auction last year as 'fake news'. An X user going by the name Gurlabh Singh claimed that Zinta, in response to Pant's earlier comment of not wanting to be picked by PBKS in the auction, called Pant "a big name" and current PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer a big performer".
"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.
Zinta denied making the insulting comments on Pant and called them ‘Fake news.’ "I am sorry but this is fake news," she replied.
The user didn't counter the 'fake news' comment from Zinta but advised the PBKS owner to hit back at Pant for his earlier 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.
After being released by Delhi Capitals, Pant, one of the most sought-after players in the mega auction, was picked up for a record amount of ₹27 crore by LSG. Days after the mega auction, Pant declared that he had only one "tension" while watching the mega auction, and that was regarding Punjab Kings, clearly indicating that the keeper-batter did not want to go to PBKS. "Andar se, mereko bas ek hi tension thha, wo 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 did not even bid for Pant as they had acquired the services of Shreyas Iyer for a whopping ₹26.75 crore barely a few minutes ago.
But Pant's comments did not go down well with the PBKS fans. In fact, when PBKS beat LSG in IPL 2025, Punjab's social media handle targetted Pant's comments to hit back at LSG in a series of tweets. "Tension" was the keyword in a number of their tweets, which began when Glenn Maxwell dismissed Pant cheaply.
