It’s early stages in the 18th season of Indian Premier League, but a strong early trend that has emerged is how uncapped Indian players have made their presence felt. One of those who have caught the eye is Punjab Kings’ Priyansh Arya. The 24-year-old from Delhi came in for special praise from PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting after their side’s 11-run win in a high-scoring contest in Ahmedabad on Tuesday against Gujarat Titans.
“I reckon we set the tone with a guy playing in his first IPL game… Priyansh, the way he started today,” Ponting said in his dressing room debrief speech. Priyansh, taking strike on his debut against a star-studded bowling lineup, scored a brisk 23-ball 47 with seven fours (the most on the night) and two sixes. In fact, Ponting had identified Priyansh as a player to watch out for, even before a ball was bowled in the tournament. “He is a very special potential opening batsman for us in the tournament,” the former Australian captain had said in an event in the lead-up to IPL. So did R Ashwin who said on his YouTube channel, “he is my no.1 player, the way he batted in Syed Mushtaq Ali..”.
Sure enough, he was handed a debut right away when Punjab Kings had the option to go with someone like Josh Inglis, the in-form Aussie keeper-batter with more experience at this level. Despite having played fewer than 20 T20 matches in his career, Priyansh was identified as the man to partner Prabhsimran Singh and the left-hander made his mark at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Dr. Sanjay Bhardwaj, who is the coach at LB Shastri Cricket Shaala in Delhi from where the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Amit Mishra have emerged, was a nervous watcher. “When your kid makes his debut at this sort of a stage after doing all the hard work for more than a decade, it’s like watching him walking on a tight rope. You are worried, as coach and parents, what happens if he falls? He has reached this far, you want him to do well. And it was a great relief to see him make such a positive start,” Bhardwaj told The Indian Express. It’s a byproduct of wanting to play attacking cricket from the moment he picked up the sport, growing up along with the IPL.
Priyansh shot to the limelight when he six sixes in an over in Delhi’s domestic T20 league in August 2024 and also had a prolific Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign for Delhi, top-scoring with 325 runs in 9 matches at a strike rate of 176.63.
“He has been practicing like this since his childhood. A player who has an attacking approach, and trusts it with his mind and heart, will give you 100% results. Priyansh has had this habit ever since he started,” Bhardwaj, who has coached Priyansh since he was 7. The senior coach was especially happy to see Priyansh play two gorgeous textbook shots. First, an arrow-like straight drive off Arshad Khan and then a delectable cover drive off Kagiso Rabada. “Glorious,” came the booming voice of Ravi Shastri on air for the first one. “Oh, he has played some spanking shots,” he added for the shot he played off the superstar South African pacer.
It’s something Priyansh has worked on since getting picked up by Punjab in the auction for Rs 3.8 crore. “If you can attack the pacers early on, it is a big asset in the IPL as an opener. He worked hard on the cut and pull, he always had good vertical drives. Those two shots along the ground… when you can play that, the confidence level increases. He will grow into his natural game now. It is impressive that an uncapped player has given such a performance. He has proved that he can do it at this level, and he has to keep improving,” Bhardwaj said, adding he has received plenty of backing already from Ponting and captain Shreyas Iyer.
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Wanting to adopt this uber-attacking approach hasn’t seen Priyansh resort to slogging; he still looked to play technically correct shots, as he picked off Siraj off his pads for a lofted four off his second ball. He had luck on his side too, dropped early on as he miscued an on-the-rise drive off Rabada, but continued to go for his shots. Shashank Singh, who also played a brilliant hand lower down the order, said Priyansh showed the world what the franchise had been seeing behind the scenes. “He has really impressed everyone in the training sessions. He is extremely fearless. It is very difficult for a debutant. But the way he batted, he showed his talent. He knows his game very well and is technically very correct,” Shashank said in the press conference.
Bhardwaj doesn’t doubt that Priyansh will remain grounded. “His talent, his discipline towards training, his fearlessness, and composed nature… he is a son of two teachers, so naturally disciplined. He can go a long way. But he has to forget about the last match and think of every match as his first. It’s not easy being an uncapped player in the league; the margin for failure is low. He has all the qualities to play at a high level. Along with his fearless approach, halka sa fear zaroor hona chahiye (there should be an element of fear!”
