Priyansh Arya waltzed from 80 to 102 in the house of 4 deliveries against Chennai Super Kings in Mullanpur on Tuesday. He did so by taming CSK’s quickest bowler Matheesha Pathirana, walloping the Sri Lankan slinger for 3 consecutive sixes earlier than citing his maiden IPL century with a 4 between quick third and backward level. In that blitz had been two back-to-back pulls that sailed over the midwicket and sq. leg boundaries, displaying scant regard for Pathirana’s tempo and status as a death-overs specialist.
In the lead-up to his debut IPL season, having been picked for ₹3.8 crore by Punjab Kings, the 24-year-old from Delhi had given particular consideration to the problem of conquering the quick bowlers. Belonging to the steady of Sanjay Bhardwaj, who has educated the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Amit Mishra, Nitish Rana and Joginder Sharma, Priyansh stationed himself at his coach’s residential academy in Bhopal earlier than the marquee task to work on his shots against tempo.
“Priyansh trained in Bhopal for 20-25 days. He practised a lot against fast bowlers, specifically on the cut and pull shots,” Bhardwaj instructed The Hindu. “In the IPL, unless you are a player capable of taking on the fast bowlers, you won’t get preference. The world’s best pacers are there and unless you master how to dominate them, you won’t be successful. He would play 200-300 pulls and 200-300 cuts every day. He faced side-armers and medium-pacers. The practice wickets were bouncy.”
Priyansh set the tone for the night time by chopping Khaleel Ahmed over backward level for a six off the very first ball of the sport. That he had been dismissed for a first-ball duck by Jofra Archer in the earlier recreation had no bearing. Bhardwaj places it all the way down to Priyansh’s see-ball, hit-ball method.
“His main strength is attacking and he does it on instinct. He does see and play rather than think and play. When you think and play, it leads to doubt or confusion,” the coach stated.
Published – April 09, 2025 06:12 pm IST
