Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra said that Rishabh Pant should be one of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) targeted acquisitions at the IPL 2025 auction as well. He also urged the franchise to be ready to pay an exorbitant sum to acquire his services. Notably, RCB retained only three players – Virat Kohli (₹21 crore), Rajat Patidar (₹11 crore), and Yash Dayal (₹5 crore) – ahead of the auction. They have a
remaining budget of ₹83 crore to assemble the rest of the squad as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “In the middle, Rishabh Pant. Will you go towards Rishabh Pant? In my opinion, they should go towards him. Again a small ground, it will suit him as well. Please go for him even if you have to go till ₹25 crore. If you feel you don’t need Rishabh Pant and need KL Rahul because he is a local boy and knows this ground as well, he will also like the small ground and flat pitch. So you can also try to bring him with you. I don’t think this team will go that aggressively for Shreyas Iyer because they will leave him for Delhi.”

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In the same video, Aakash Chopra also named Phil Salt and Jos Buttler as potential wicketkeeper-opener options for RCB for the IPL 2025.

“They will need an opener and a keeper. So you will have two or three options available. You can go after Phil Salt. You can bring Jos Buttler with you. Small ground – Jos Buttler and Virat Kohli – wow. That will be a good pair. Whoever plays with Virat Kohli at the other end needs to be an out-and-out aggressive guy. He should score runs quickly and move the scorecard very fast until he stays. So Phil Salt and Jos Butller, those kind of players excite you more and also give you the wicketkeeping option,” Aakash Chopra concluded.