Harpreet Brar

Bought by the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the 2019 Auctions of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Harpreet Brar’s career has seen several ups and downs but it has been the sheer tenacity and patience of the youngster which has helped him realise his dream of playing at the top level. The left-arm spinner who made his debut for the KXIP in 2019 was already trying to break into the squad for four years. 

However, he was rejected on all four occasions and he decided to move to Canada like several other Punjabis. However, a last-minute call-up to the KXIP squad instilled a new life into his cricketing career. He played a couple of games for Punjab in 2019 and a solitary match in 2020. He was retained by the franchise and will ply his trade in the upcoming edition. 

A left-arm orthodox spinner who has the ability to give the ball a rip started off his cricketing journey in Roopar’s Inter-District tournament of Punjab and topped the bowling charts on numerous occasions. However, his chances came few and far in between them. When his team was relegated, Brar made a move to Mohali at the insistence of Gurkeerat Singh Maan. The decision worked wonders for the 6 ft 2 inches tall spinner and life has been pretty kind for him ever since. 

Harpreet went on to play for the Punjab U-23 team and also bagged 18 wickets for them in just 5 matches. The Moga-born cricketer is also a handy lower-order batsman and scored 206 runs in the 5 matches. 

The all-rounder went onto make his List A debut against Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla and came up with a crucial knock for his team when the chips were down. Punjab needed a serious lift to increase the scoring rate and he exactly provided that with a quickfire knock of 20 off just 12 deliveries. 

He is yet to make his first-class debut but his numbers in his brief T20 career is very impressive. In all likelihood, Brar has to warm the benches for Punjab yet again in the upcoming season but the 25-year-old will surely look to gain from the experience of rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the game.

(As of March 2021)