Watch: Rishabh Pant’s savage mockery of Preity Zinta’s Punjab Kings: "Only had one tension..."

Taking a sly dig at Punjab Kings, Rishabh Pant has said he was concerned he might go to Punjab Kings in the IPL 2025 mega auction. The wicketkeeper-batsman made the comment during an interview with Jatin Sapru on Star Sports.

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) owner Sanjiv Goenka was also sitting alongside Rishabh Pant. During the same interview, the Delhi star was also confirmed as the new captain of LSG. He has replaced his India teammate KL Rahul as the new LSG captain.

Rishabh Pant was playing for Delhi Capitals since his inaugural IPL season in 2016. In 2021, he was also named the captain of the team. Since then, he led Delhi Capitals in all the seasons except in 2023 when he was out of action after sustaining serious injuries in a life-threatening car crash.

Also Read: 'Only openers are fixed': Axar Patel exposes chaos in Indian T20I batting order

Not many were expecting Rishabh Pant to register for the auction but he eventually did after failing to strike a deal with Delhi Capitals. The hard-hitting batsman was expected to earn a lucrative contract in the IPL 2025 mega auction and eventually ended up becoming the most expensive player in the history of the IPL. LSG secured his services for INR 27 crore.

Rishabh Pant takes a dig at Punjab Kings:

After being confirmed as LSG captain, Rishabh Pant decided to take a shot at Punjab Kings, saying that he was concerned that the franchise might go for him. With Punjab Kings having the highest purse, the former Delhi Capitals captain was certain that the franchise would go big for him in the auction.

However, before Pant was auctioned, Punjab Kings had signed up IPL-winning captain Shreyas Iyer for INR 26.75 crore. While Pant did not reveal the reason behind his concerns over going to Punjab Kings, his comments made it clear that he did not want to go to the franchise and reunite with his former Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting.

"I only had one concern, and that was Punjab," said Rishabh Pant before letting out a laugh.

"The second-highest purse was 82 crore (Royal Challengers Bengaluru had a purse of 83 crore), while Punjab had 112 crore (110.5 crore). So, in the beginning, when Shreyas went there, I felt that now I might end up going to LSG," he added.

he really said that, “ek hi tension tha, punjab” because of the purse they had.

https://t.co/GsScGBL9eI

— 𝒑.💌 (@ssnoozefest) January 20, 2025

In the mega auction, LSG and RCB started the bidding for Pant. After RCB dropped out, Sunrisers Hyderabad decided to bid for the India star. The two franchises took the bid to INR 20.75 crore before SRH dropped out and Pant was sold to LSG.

However, Delhi Capitals decided to exercise their Right-to-Match (RTM) card in an attempt to buy back their captain. As per the new rules, LSG were given another opportunity to raise the bid and the Lucknow-based franchise made a winning bid of INR 27 crore. With DC refusing to match the bid, LSG finally secured Pant's services for a record price.