In just his fourth Indian Premier League (IPL) innings, Priyansh Arya announced his arrival in the tournament, smashing a century for Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their match against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The 24-year-old impressed on his debut with a quickfire 47, before registering scores of 7 and 0 prior to the game against CSK. Speaking to The Hindustan Times, Priyansh’s childhood coach, Sanjay Bhardwaj of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, whose alumni include India head coach Gautam Gambhir, Nitish Rana, and Amit Mishra, recalled how he managed to get the southpaw into the Delhi U19 selection trials.

“He was not in the U19 selection process. There was a tournament that a former India player was organising. The U19 selector was Gurusharan Singh. I wanted Priyansh to feature in the tournament as I was confident he would become the Player of the Series. I thought if he ends up performing well, I will request Gurusharan to consider him for a trial,” said Bharadwaj.

“By God’s grace, everything happened. Priyansh Arya gave the trial match. We won the tournament. He became the Player of the Series. Ajay Jadeja awarded him a bat,” he added.

Priyansh, who had a base price of Rs 30 lakh, was roped in by PBKS for Rs 3.8 crore, but his friends had told him that he won’t fetch more than Rs 1 crore. 

“He is like my own child. I always believed that Priyansh Arya would fetch good money at the auction. Priyansh told me his friends said he wouldn’t get more than Rs crore. But I told his father that Priyansh would at least get Rs 2.70 crore,” he said.

Speaking to news agency PTI, Bhardwaj also expressed the desire to see his ward in India whites.

“Abhi us pe bahot kaam baaki hai (He is a work in progress). We will work at my academy in Bhopal after IPL so that he can become a Delhi regular in Ranji Trophy,” Bhardwaj said.