[Watch] "Sorry Shreyas" - Preity Zinta’s humorous take on buying the second-most expensive player in IPL 2025 Auction
Punjab Kings' co-owner Preity Zinta cheekily apologized to Shreyas Iyer after the right-handed batter missed out on becoming the most expensive player in the IPL auction history. In a video shared by Jio Cinema on Instagram, the Bollywood actress mentioned the word record-breaking and immediately apologized to Iyer, who narrowly missed the feat.
Iyer, who entered the mega auction at ₹2 crore, received bids from multiple franchises. The right-handed batter had led the Kolkata Knight Riders to a title win in IPL 2024 and hence, was on the radar of several franchises. While he surpassed Mitchell Starc's record with an amount of ₹26.75 crore, Rishabh Pant overtook him moments later with ₹27.00 crore from the Lucknow Super Giants.
Responding to a question from the host on whether she dreamt any player will command this sort of amount, Preity Zinta remarked:
"Well, hamesha aisa laga tha ki jo bhi IPL mein, it'll be record-breaking. Par 26 crore, yes socha tha (Sorry) 27 crore, Sorry Shreyas! Kuch toh tax mein katega." (Well, I have always felt anything is record-breaking in the IPL. But 26 crore, yes, thought about it. (Sorry) 27 crore, Sorry Shreyas! A portion will go to tax.)
Having played for Delhi Capitals and the Knight Riders before, this will be the 29-year-old's first foray with Punjab.
"I wanted to work with Shreyas" - Ricky Ponting
Punjab Kings' newly appointed head coach Ricky Ponting has backed the Mumbai-born cricketer to be a great captain and hinted strongly at giving him the role. He said, as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo:
"I wanted to work with Shreyas. I've worked with him before and he is a great guy and a great player. He'll be a great leader for our team if we decide to go that way, which I'm pretty sure we probably will. And obviously, he was the championship-winning captain last year. So there are lots of great things about bringing him to Punjab."
Punjab Kings' best performance in IPL history has been reaching the final in 2014.