Hard work finally paid off for few local talents as they were retained over big names in the recently announced Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 retentions for all franchises. As big names, Hardik Pandya Suresh Raina, have all faced axe from their respective franchises, on the other hand, one player who has certainly made headlines is the 22-year-old Arshdeep Singh as Punjab Kings (PBKS) for Rs 4 crore..
“Playing cricket has been Arshdeep’s passion since he started playing and we have always supported his dream. To see him being retained by Punjab Kings out of much more experienced players is the reward of all the hard work by Arshdeep. While I was posted in CISF earlier, my wife Baljeet Kaur would support a young Arshdeep,” Darshan Singh, Arshdeep’s father told Indian Express after his son was retained by the Punjab franchise.
Early days
Speaking to the publication a few years back, the bowler had a very interesting story to share. He would travel 15 km daily to reach his academy and started to bowl as a medium pacer as tennis ball cricket didn’t offer too much spin. He idolised Irfan Pathan and Wasim Akram in his initial days as both were terrific left-arm bowlers in their prime. Pathan’s hat-trick in 2006 against Pakistan in a Test match made him follow the the Baroda-born swing bowler.
The Punjab-born player started to take lessons in cricket from an early age of nine from coach Jaswant Raithat. Arshdeep initially started his journey with Haryana U-14 before switching alliances to Punjab. The versatile bowler who picked up nine wickets in the IPL had switched alliances to Punjab at U-16 and U-17 levels. He was also part of the India U-19 team in the 2018 World Cup but didn’t play in the final.
Rising through the ranks
The bright Indian prospect was also picked as a net bowler for India’s tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year. He is only one of four Indian players who are yet to earn a senior cap for the national team. He is joined by Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abdul Samad and Umran Malik as other uncapped players in the retention.
Plenty remaining in the wallet
Surprisingly the duo was retained ahead of KL Rahul who parted ways with the franchise and decided to go in the auction. Arshdeep who was roped in for his base price of Rs 20 lakhs in 2019 has now been retained for an astonishing figure of four crores. This is 20 times more than the figure he was bought for.
With Arshdeep and Agarwal’s being PBKS only two retentions, the franchise now has a remaining purse of Rs 72 crores as they try to overhaul the squad. The amount is the highest left for any team that was part of the previous campaign.
