At six feet six inches, it's almost impossible for Yash Raj Punja to go unnoticed. On the eve of the IPL 2026 eliminator, Rajasthan Royals' 19-year-old legspinner towered over everyone else at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium on the outskirts of Chandigarh. His unusually high release point and ability to generate extra bounce kept RR's more experienced players, including Yashasvi Jaiswal, on their toes.
Two years ago, his tall frame caught the attention of Ian Bishop - he is taller than the former West Indies quick - at the Chennai airport, when Punja was merely a net bowler with RR. That post on X (formerly Twitter) popped up on our timelines once again and went viral when Punja made his IPL debut this season.
Met this 18 year old @rajasthanroyals leg spinning net bowler yesterday as we travelled to Chennai. I am 6ft 6 1/2inchs tall. And he has me covered so he is at least 6ft 6 inches tall. His name is Yash & he is from Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/k0cDzb5E7g
— Ian Raphael Bishop (@irbishi) May 24, 2024
After warming the bench in the first half of his debut season, Punja stepped in as an Impact Player against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens and had Ramandeep Singh chopping on with a wrong 'un. As RR's third spinner behind Ravi Bishnoi and Ravindra Jadeja, Punja came away with creditable figures of 4-0-25-1.
Then, soon after he pinned down the spin-bashing Shreyas Iyer in New Chandigarh, he emerged as RR's point-of-difference spinner, pushing Ravi Bishnoi, who was the No. 1-ranked T20I bowler not too long ago, out of the team. Apart from keeping Iyer quiet, Punja took out Prabhsimran Singh and the left-handed Cooper Connolly on the day.
That very surface (pitch no.4) is set to be reused in New Chandigarh against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday.
However, across the previous two SRH-RR games this season in Hyderabad and Jaipur, spinners only had a limited role to play. In the teams' most recent meeting in Jaipur, Bishnoi and Jadeja had bowled just one over each. New Chandigarh isn't a spin-friendly venue either, but there seems to be something for legspinners here.
Legspinners have had an economy rate of 8.8 across four matches in New Chandigarh this season, while left-arm fingerspinners and offspinners have gone at 8.9 and an eye-watering 14.1, respectively.
With the square boundaries bigger than the ones in the 'V', Punja's in-to-the-pitch wristspin could be an especially handy option at this ground. With Jadeja not fully fit and RR reluctant to use his left-arm fingerspin against left-handers - SRH have four of them in their potential top seven - the onus might be on Punja to control the middle overs for RR.
Punja's economy rate of 8.76 in the middle overs this season is comparable with elite spinners like Jadeja (8.14), Noor Ahmad (8.17), Axar Patel (8.28) and Krunal Pandya (8.53). RR's team management believes that Punja has the skills and temperament to cope with pressure, though he is only in his debut IPL season.
"Yash has been an interesting choice for us," RR head coach Kumar Sangakkara said after they sealed their playoffs spot on Sunday. "He's been with us in the nets for three seasons and we picked him this year and unfortunately Bishy (Bishnoi) has had to sit out a couple of games because of Yash, but he's tall and has got good revs on the ball. He turns his legspinner and his googly and he has got a really calm demeanour under pressure.
"This [Wankhede] was a pretty good wicket to bat on, but the way he bowled to those seasoned batters was outstanding. He will just grow and improve. But I just want him to stay calm and really trust his skills because he has got pretty good skills."
Punja's progress doesn't come across as a surprise to those who have closely tracked his journey from the UAE to the IPL via Bengaluru. Punja was born to Indian parents in Abu Dhabi - his elder brother Yodhin represented UAE Under-19s and the UAE senior team before injuries curtailed his career - and played a bit of recreational cricket in the Emirates before K Jeshwant, the former Karnataka spinner, convinced him into pursuing professional cricket in Bengaluru.
"I think I first saw Yash in 2023-24, when I was at a coaching camp, as part of the Six Cricket Academy," Jeswant recalled, speaking to ESPNcricinfo. "He was not playing serious cricket at the time, but you could see the talent. When Anil (Kumble) started at Karnataka, I was the vice-captain and I saw him develop. I saw a bit of Anil in Yash, especially with the height. But his bowling needed some work - he was falling to the side towards cover because of lateral flexion. Once that was sorted out, he could see the full value of his six feet six inches.
"In a camp in Abu Dhabi, Alastair Cook also watched him and believed that Yash had an X-factor. Yash's parents, though, were not too keen on having Yash play cricket because Yodhin's career was cut short by injury. But I told his parents that he had serious potential. His father (Dhreeraj) was actually my classmate at St Joseph's in Bangalore (laughs). Maybe that's why they trusted me and sent him to Bangalore."
As fate would have it, Punja had an opportunity to bowl to RR's batters when they had a camp at the Six Academy in Bengaluru. He soon became a 'Project Player' for RR and after he levelled up and became the second-highest wicket-taker in the KSCA's Maharaja T20 league, with 23 strikes in ten innings at an economy rate of 7.45, RR got him into their main team.
Back in the day, when Punja was in the UAE, he would often procrastinate studying to watch IPL highlights. On Wednesday, he is set to feature in an IPL knockout game as RR's lead spinner.