India, April 19 -- 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 IYE...