Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra said that the Punjab Kings’ (PBKS) opening combination could be a potential problem for them in IPL 2025. He added that the franchise might have to go with two uncapped Indian openers — Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya as well. However, PBKS had retained Prabhsimran for ₹4 crore, while they spent ₹3.80 crore to buy Arya at the recent mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Let’s start with the openers. They retained Prabhsimran Singh and have bought Priyansh Arya very expensive. He is a good kid, hits clean sixes, and his stocks have gone up drastically, but he is an uncapped Indian. His stocks have gone up at the domestic level. No one knows what he will do in the IPL.”

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“If both their openers remain uncapped Indians, I will be a little surprised that if you got two uncapped openers despite having ₹110 crore, did you shop well? It’s a dicey situation. It can be good as well but what if it doesn’t? Then you will say that you could have got Jos Buttler, Ishan Kishan or Phil Salt as an opener with that much money,” Chopra further added.

In the same video, Aakash Chopra also stated that Marcus Stoinis could be an opening option for the Punjab Kings as well.

“The second option they have is to use Marcus Stoinis as an opener because he opens and Ricky Ponting has brought him back. So who knows they might make him open. Another option could be to open with Josh Inglis. He is the current (stand-in) captain of the Australian T20 team. He is also a very decent player. He can open but the balance will be slightly off if you open with Inglis,” Aakash Chopra concluded.