Shresta Iyer, sister of Indian international and Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer, issued a public statement after deleting a video on Instagram for which she received ‘hatred’ over the past week.
The message from Iyer arrives after she received criticism for a video published after Punjab’s match against Kolkata Knight Riders, which was abandoned after little under five overs were played due to heavy showers at the Eden Gardens. Shresta, along with some friends in PBKS gear, seemed to take a sly sig at KKR as they performed a dance and hinted at ‘gifting’ KKR one point after the wash-out.
It wasn’t a message that was taken too well, and forced Shresta Iyer to delete the Instagram video, and issue somethign of an apology in response.
“I’ve decided to take down my recent video as it seems it was misunderstood by some. It was meant to be light-hearted banter, but I respect that not everyone saw it that way,” she wrote on her Instagram story in response.
Shresta cites negativity around video
{{/usCountry}}Shresta cites negativity around video
{{/usCountry}}“However, it’s been quite upsetting to receive not just negativity, but also a few threat messages over it. That’s something I didn’t expect, especially for something that was never intended to harm anyone,” the message continued.
“I’m not removing the video because I believe I did something wrong, but because I respect my brother and his team, and I don’t want this space to turn into one filled with negativity… Let’s try to be a little kinder and more understanding with each other,” concluded Iyer’s statement.
The incident hinted at the reports surrounding the bad blood between Shreyas Iyer and the KKR franchise ahead of his departure before the 2025 season: despite captaining them to the trophy in the 2024 season, the team parted ways with their captain after an inability to reach terms over retention ahead of the fresh cycle.
Shreyas now enjoys life for PBKS, where he is fondly called ‘Sarpanch’ (chief), having joined former coach Ricky Ponting and reached consecutive finals in 2025. Heading into the fresh season, PBKS are amongst the favourites, and have had a terrific start with five points from three games.