Priyansh Arya has become toast of the IPL 2025 following a remarkable century for Punjab Kings against five-time champions Chennai Super Kings in what is his debut season. The unheralded Delhi cricketer stood tall amidst a top-order collapse to peel off a maiden century to help set up a mammoth 200-plus total which proved beyond CSK’s reach. The 24-year-old showed immense courage, peppering the boundary amidst the ruins to ensure PBKS weren’t under the pressure despite the wickets they kept losing regularly. The fearless approach resulted in Priyansh blasting 103 off 42, an innings featuring seven fours and nine sixes. He now holds the record for the fastest IPL century by an uncapped player. Before entering the IPL limelight, Priyansh had made waves during the Delhi Premier League last year when he smashed six sixes in an over. In an interview to Hindustan Times, Priyansh’s coach Sanjay Bhardwaj has recalled how he got his ward the chance to feature in Delhi U19 trials. As per the report, Bhardwaj paid Rs 45,000 to get his ward entry into a club tournament organised by a former India cricketer hoping a player-of-the-series award winning performance will brighten the youngster’s chance at the U19 trials. “He (Priyansh) was not in the U19 selection process,” Bhardwaj told the publication. “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.” As luck would have it, Priyansh’s team ended up winning the tournament with him playing the starring role. Priyansh then caught everyone’s attention with his stunning show in the DPL 2024 with even former India offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin hyping him up, advising IPL teams to keep an eye out for the batter. At the two-day mega auction in Jeddah, PBKS shelled out Rs 3.8 crore to sign Priyansh who had entered the pool at a base price of Rs 30 lakh. “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 INR 1 crore. But I told his father that Priyansh would at least get INR 2.70 crore,” Bharadwaj said. Once the IPL 2025 concludes, Bhardwaj says they have already drawn out a plan to help Priyansh further polish his game with focus on how he can improve his red-ball game. “Priyansh Arya needs to keep working on his match. After the IPL, we have chalked out a plan on how to go about training. Priyansh will come to Bhopal to fine-tune his skills. We need to figure out how Priyansh goes about his business in red-ball cricket,” he said.