Priyam Garg

One of the finest young cricketers going around, Priyam Garg narrowly missed out on entering an elite list of Indian skippers to have won the U-19 World Cups. Garg led India to the final of the U-19 World Cup 2020 but the Boys in Blue narrowly lost to Bangladesh in the final. 

The scenes at the stadium turned ugly after the game as players from both teams ran into each other and got involved in a brawl which is hardly seen these days. Garg showed composure at the post-match presentation and reiterated the fact that it could have been avoided. However, his leadership abilities and taking the brunt of failure were quite evident. Garg was not in the greatest of touches with the bat during the tournament but his field placing and bowling changes worked wonders for India. After his success in the U 19 World Cup, Garg was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2020 IPL Auctions. 

Garg hails from Uttar Pradesh and comes from a humble background. He was given ample support from his father for his cricket as he used to do some odd jobs back then. Garg also suffered a major heartbreak in 2011 when he lost his mother just at the innocent age of 11 years. However, his father kept supporting him and it eventually paid rich dividends. 

Garg has been playing cricket since he was 6 years old and eventually got training at the Victoria Park Cricket Training Ground in Meerut. Garg started off his career as a fast bowler as he was motivated to see the likes of Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar rising from the same area. However, his coaches Ashwani Sharma and Sanjay Rastogi persisted him to give more focus on his batting as it came quite naturally to him. 

Garg made his List A debut in the 2018/19 Vijay Hazare Trophy and smashed a sensational century in his debut against Goa. He went onto make his first-class debut a month and a half later in a Ranji Trophy match. A month later he smashed his maiden first-class double ton against Tripura to announce his arrival. 

He was in contention for a U-19 berth in 2018 but was eventually dropped from the squad owing to a dip in form as the selectors wanted him to regain his touch and composure. He was back with a bang and went onto lead India in the 2020 U-19 World Cup. 

In 2020, Garg played his maiden IPL season for the Hyderabad-based franchise in UAE. The naturally elegant batsman played the opportunity to play 14 matches in the illustrious league ahead of some serious talents like Virat Singh and Abdul Samad. Garg made his debut against Royal Challengers Bangalore, but couldn’t do much and made a 12 off 13 balls, before getting bowled to a Shivam Dube delivery. 

However, Garg made his mark at the highest level with an exceptional knock against the Chennai Super Kings. His team lost two big wickets at a crucial juncture of the game and it was Garg who forged a solid partnership with his longtime mate Abhishek Sharma. In the rest of the season, the promising batsman failed to stamp his mark, but the SRH management has retained him for the 2021 season. 

Coming into the 14th edition of the IPL, Garg appeared to be in good nick as played a huge role in Uttar Pradesh’s road to the final in the 2020-21 season of Vijay Hazare. He scored two half-centuries and a century against the Railways in the tournament and he would like to continue his form and mark big in the biggest T20 league as well. 

(As of March 2021)