CHENNAI: Only a few days into Punjab Kings’ pre-season camp, there was several interview requests for Priyansh Arya. When it was put to him that several scribes wanted to speak to him, the opener had given a one sentence response. “I will talk after I perform,” he had said.
In a performance straight out of a fever dream on Tuesday night, Arya didn’t just perform, he played the sort of an innings that will, in time, have its own wikipedia page. Remember Paul Valthaty’s mayhem against the same opposition? That Yusuf Pathan ton from the dream factory when he clattered 100 off 37?
This 100 from Arya, off 39 balls, will belong in that same cultish genre, where an otherwise routine game will be remembered because of the knock.
Firstly, Arya may not be a household name but he’s a well known face among the T20 circuit. In a Delhi Premier League game last year, he hit six sixes in an over. He continued that form into the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s where he top-scored for Delhi (325 runs at a strike-rate of 176.6).
It’s why R Ashwin made a special mention of Arya in his YouTube channel before the IPL had begun. “… he’s my No. 1 player,” he had said. When Punjab got him at the auction for `3.8 cr (base price of `30 lakh), people did expect him to play a part in 2025 but Josh Inglis and the retained Prabhsimran Singh were seemingly the openers who would start.
Coach Ricky Ponting, never one to shy away from giving youngsters the chance to show what they are made of, took a hammer to that sentiment even before the IPL had begun. “He,” the Australia had said in the lead up to the tournament, “is a very special potential opening batter for us.”
He had kind of repaid that faith in fits and bursts over the first two weeks. Against an already beleaguered Chennai franchise, the 24-year-old married hedonism and talent with some luck along the way.
This version of Punjab is all about batting intent and attacking without worrying about the wickets lost column. Some teams prefer this because the thinking, then, is clear and uncluttered without the fear of consequences. At 3/54 after five overs, Arya may have been inclined to rein it in a touch on other sides. Not for Punjab. In the process, he ended up playing the cricket version of ‘call the ambulance but not for me’ meme.
It was an innings filled with audacious strokeplay, disrespecting two of the greatest spinners this country has known and throwing out conventional wisdom out of the window.