IPL 2025: Players Punjab Kings will regret missing out on

Punjab Kings entered the IPL 2025 mega auction with the biggest price. After retaining only two uncapped players, the franchise had more than 100 crore left in its purse. Unsurprisingly, they splashed big in the auction and have assembled a strong squad.

The Punjab-based outfit has not qualified for the playoffs since 2014 when they made it to the final for the very first time. For IPL 2025, they have signed a number of big names including IPL 2024-winning captain Shreyas Iyer, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, and Marco Jansen.

However, they could still regret their decision of not signing some other names. So here we are taking a look at three such players that Punjab Kings could regret missing out on.

IPL 2025: Players Punjab Kings will regret missing out on:

Jos Buttler:

A quality opener is a must for a team in any format of the game and Punjab Kings decided to go for one in the auction. They bid for England's T20 World Cup-winning captain Jos Buttler who is undoubtedly one of the best batsmen in the white-ball format.

Punjab joined the race to sign Buttler when the price was already more than INR 9 crore. They were in the race till the price went above 13 crore before pulling out. In the end, Gujarat Titans bought Buttler for 15.75 crore.

Apart from Buttler, Punjab bid for some other overseas openers too such as Devon Conway and Jake Fraser-McGurk but could not sign any of them. Buttler did not have the best of outings with the bat in IPL 2024 but he still managed to score two hundreds including one against eventual winners Kolkata Knight Riders.

Harshal Patel:

Punjab's decision to release Harshal Patel raised several eyebrows. While the franchise had a disastrous campaign in IPL 2024, Harshal made a big impact with the ball. He finished the tournament as the highest wicket-taker.

In 14 games, Harshal picked up an impressive 24 wickets. However, Punjab not only decided against retaining him but did not use the RTM option either. Punjab initially went for the RTM but did not match Sunrisers Hyderabad's bid of 8 crore. As a result, Harshal was signed up by Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Ashutosh Sharma:

In an otherwise disappointing campaign in IPL 2024 for Punjab Kings, Ashutosh Sharma was one of their very few positives. The middle-order was also called the find of the season by many after he took the IPL by storm.

Ashutosh impressed one and all with his attacking display including his aggressive batting against none other than Jasprit Bumrah. In 9 innings, he scored 189 at a strike-rate of more than 167. Punjab Kings, however, decided against retaining him.

They did not go big for him in the auction as well and would be hoping that their decision does not backfire in IPL 2025. Ashutosh was eventually signed up by Delhi Capitals for 3.80 crore.

Punjab Kings squad for IPL 2025:

Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Nehal Wadhera, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Marco Jansen, Josh Inglis, Lockie Ferguson, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Kuldeep Sen, Priyansh Arya, Aaron Hardie, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Xavier Bartlett, Pyla Avinash, Pravin Dubey.