Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra said that Arshdeep Singh was an excellent acquisition for the Punjab Kings (PBKS) at the IPL 2025 auction. He also added that the left-arm pacer has been a more potent wicket-taker than the modern bowling great Jasprit Bumrah in T20Is as well. PBKS also released Arshdeep and retained only two uncapped players, Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh, ahead of the auction. However, they bought back the Punjab seamer for ₹18 crore at the recent auction as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said: “They said at the start that they wanted Arshdeep for ₹18 crore. They would have spent that much only had they retained him. He is a Punjabi and will remain with the Punjabis, and he is very good. New ball, old ball, Indian fast bowler, if someone is able to do that consistently after Bumrah, it’s Arshdeep. In fact, he has run ahead of even Bumrah in terms of wicket-taking prowess. He remains a little expensive but has run ahead of him because he is a wicket-taker,” Chopra added.
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“Yuzi Chahal – ₹18 crore. He kept going very far, and we were gobsmacked about how far Yuzi would go. Spinners don’t get that much money. They get it at times, Rashid Khan has been retained for as much, but Rashid Khan is only one. He became very rich – ₹18 crore. We are very happy because he is India’s best leg-spinner. There is no doubt about that,” Chopra again said.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra also said that the Punjab Kings spent a massive amount to buy Shreyas Iyer ahead of Rishabh Pant.
“The big question was whether (Rishabh) Pant would become a part of Project Punter (Ricky Ponting), but it didn’t happen. They said they were focussing on Shreyas Iyer first. They went and went, and didn’t stop – ₹26.75 crore, and we said stop it. He went that far. They needed a skipper, and they had zeroed in on Shreyas Iyer as their captain. A little premium is applied for the captain. You have to pay 15 to 20 percent extra money because he is the captain,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
