IPL 2026: Making of Yash Raj Punja, Rajasthan Royals’ latest find

Yash Raj Punja has outstripped Ravi Bishnoi to become Rajasthan Royals’ first-choice leg-spinner in his maiden venture in the Indian Premier League (IPL). During the Eliminator on Wednesday, Punja nabbed Sunrisers Hyderabad’s highest run-scorer Heinrich Klaasen, adding to his envious haul that includes Shreyas Iyer, Will Jacks and Josh Inglis.

The six-foot-five 19-year-old might be basking in his recent glory, but back at the SIX Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, his coach K. Jeshwanth eagerly awaits his student’s return.

“It was just the first season, now it’s time for us to take it to the next level,” he says.

Punja first caught attention two years back when he was still plying his trade as a net bowler for the Royals and was spotted by Ian Bishop. Naturally, the first thing that stood out about Punja was his height.

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It is rare for a player with a tall frame to take up spin. But Jeshwanth, a former Ranji Trophy player for Karnataka had seen another tall leg-spinner bloom under him a few decades back.

“Even Anil Kumble was highly dependent on bounce, bounce as well as a bit of pace. He used to bowl those quicker deliveries very fast. Anil was quick and even this boy depends on the bounce,” Jeshwanth says.

But getting Punja to extract bounce took time. Jeshwanth first spotted him at an academy in Abu Dhabi at a time when Punja’s parents did not have the least bit of intentions of turning their son towards professional cricket.

“The kid had it. So I saw him there and then I told his parents that ‘you need to give him a fair go with cricket’, which they were not very keen on because of the bad experience of his elder brother [with injury]. But his father was my classmate in school, and I thought it was because of that he was convinced and gave him a chance. He started sending him to the summer camp in Bengaluru,” says Jeshwanth.

In the two summers at the SIX Cricket Academy, Jeshwanth worked on fixing the flaw that was rendering his height advantage ineffective: Lateral flexion.

In simple terms, Punja’s head was falling over to the off-side when delivering at the crease, thus taking off substantial inches off his release point.

“Him being a tall guy, height is a very big advantage because if he delivers at the highest point – from where he’s delivering now – he obviously tends to get more bounce. So, earlier, at the time of release, instead of the head going towards the batsman, it would fall to the off-side, towards the cover region by which he was losing the bounce.

“That had to be corrected and not many people are aware as to how to do it. For this kind of a problem most coaches just say that your core is weak and that’s it, they just send the kids to the gym. But it’s a technical issue that needs to be worked on, which we did and from thereon he got full value for his height,” Jeshwanth says.

It was while Punja was stationed in Bengaluru for a summer camp that Rajasthan Royals pit-stopped at the SIX Cricket Academy for a short training camp and needed bowlers for nets. Punja impressed and was eventually called up as a net bowler.

Then came the next big switch in his life: moving to India and taking up the game as a full-time job in 2023.

“From the last three years, he has moved here because he needs to be domiciled out of Karnataka to play in the KSCA. So, last year, he managed to squeeze through that and played for the Under-23 team. And then, he got into the Maharaja Trophy where he was, I think, the second highest wicket-taker [23 wickets in 10 games],” Jeshwanth said.

Though Punja was part of the U-23 Men’s State A Karnataka side, he did not play a game. But the Maharaja Trophy success convinced RR to invest in him despite him not having played a single List A or T20 game.

He might have been an unheralded commodity but has stood firm this season with nine wickets for seven games at an economy of less than nine-an-over.

Jeshwanth, though impressed with how the teenager has performed, knows that more work needs to be put in for him to sustain in the IPL and eventually work towards stepping up in First-Class cricket too.

“Without going into too much detail, there are a few things which we need to do. Maybe a bit of focus on what he’s doing because I’ve been watching and he can be slightly tighter with his options.

“As far as red-ball cricket goes, that needs a lot more work. [Building] That endurance of bowling the entire day takes time. Of course, he has been working on it. But most of the time he has spent in Abu Dhabi and the cricket there is different. It is not like a kid who has been playing cricket from the age of 12, 13 in Bangalore or India where they are used to bowling long spells. So, that is one thing that may take a little more time,” Jeshwanth says.

Published on May 29, 2026