When Yash Raj Punja walked out at Eden Gardens for his Rajasthan Royals debut on 19 April, there was another cricketer in his family who was feeling the nerves just as much as the leg spinner: his older brother. Punja went into the game against Kolkata Knight Riders knowing there was a 50-50 chance that he might play, and soon found himself subbed in for the second innings as the Royals looked to defend 156.
“For us as the family and me in particular, I didn’t realise that there could be something more nerve wracking than playing yourself until I had this experience,” Yash’s brother, Yodhin, tells Cricbuzz. “Because it’s almost like you are playing, but you have zero control over what’s happening and you have zero adrenaline to take you through the ups and downs.”
Yodhin was a promising cricketer himself – a tearaway quick who swung the ball both ways. At 16, he became the UAE’s youngest ODI cricketer. “When you’re playing, you have a huge crowd, your mind is blocked on the technical things,” he recalls. “You have adrenaline pumping, you’re sweating. When you’re not playing, and when my little brother was playing, it’s almost like I’m on the pitch, but I have no support from adrenaline. Every ball was just pure pressure and just prayers and hoping that he does well. It was the same for my mom and dad as well.”
After conceding 12 runs in his opening over during the Powerplay, Yash responded with two tight overs during the middle period, conceding just 10 runs. Then came his maiden wicket: a fizzing googly that Ramandeep Singh dragged back on to his stumps. He finished with figures of 1-25, and those watching were impressed by the lanky 20-year-old’s control and command over the wrong-un. Yodhin, however, was far less surprised. It was he who had pushed Yash to swap fast bowling for leg spin years earlier – and who had pulled his brother into cricket in the first place.
“I really wanted a younger brother so I have someone to play cricket with me. I didn’t really leave him much choice in terms of what sport he played,” Yodhin, who is six years older, says with a smile. Like Yodhin, Yash trained at the Zayed Cricket Academy in Abu Dhabi where the family were based.
It was only natural that Yash wanted to take up fast bowling like his brother. He might have been a successful one too, with his 6’5 frame. But the switch to leg spin happened long before his growth spurt at 15, and it was casual brotherly play that triggered it.
“Until the age of around 10, he wanted to follow me and become a fast bowler. But then when we would play in the corridor, and it’s a very small corridor, we’d only be allowed to bowl spin, that was our rule,” recounts Yodhin.
Yodhin and Yash in the corridor they grew up playing cricket ©Cricbuzz
That was when he noticed something curious. “When he would just playfully bowl leg spin, his ball would end up being a googly. That’s a skill that many cricketers spend a lot of time trying to develop. The fact that he naturally had that was very interesting to me and I spoke to our coaches in the academy and said that I think he should pursue spin. So he started working on his leg spin from that point on.”
Then came the growth spurt that unlocked a high release point. By then, Yash already had accuracy. Now, with the ability to generate drift and a trajectory that few other leg spinners could match, Yash started grabbing attention.
It was a chance encounter at the Dravid-Padukone Academy in Bangalore, where Yash was training during his summer break, that set Yash’s career on a different trajectory. He caught the eye of Zubin Bharucha, the director of cricket at the Rajasthan Royals, who happened to be training at the academy.
“So Yash being a 6 foot 5 leg spinner was offered to them as a net bowler while they were training. They were there for three days and during that camp, Zubin Bharucha had a close eye on Yash and really felt like he has the ability and the skills and the natural gift of height to be able to take cricket seriously,” remembers Yodhin.
By then, few doubts remained about Yash taking up cricket professionally. Years ago, it was a path Yodhin had walked away from despite having played senior international cricket aged just 16. “Cricket in the UAE is quite, let’s say, unstable. There are cricketers who show great promise at a young age who just go on to be lost because they aren’t backed enough,” explains Yodhin. “It’s a very dynamic system where you perform well for six months, you’re in the team and then a few bad months and you’re out. And there’s a constant rotation of cricketers within the UAE. It’s not like a long-term career that you can think of.”
Yodhin attended trials in Mumbai and impressed Omkar Salvi, who insisted that he was good enough to play Under-23 cricket in Mumbai. However, faced with the uncertainty of fast bowling and a move to India contrasted by the relative stability of a cricket scholarship in the UK, Yodhin chose the latter and pursued a degree at Cardiff Metropolitan University.
But once he graduated in 2022, visa restrictions meant he had no way of pursuing a full-time cricket career in the UK. Well aware of the perils of fast bowling, and having already experienced an ACL tear, Yodhin hung up his boots and chose academics instead. He now works as an auditor at Deloitte in London.
Yash took up the path that Yodhin had chosen not to. “I would say he had more belief in himself that he’s going to be a professional cricketer and he is going to go all the way and put 100% into this,” says Yodhin, while admitting that Yash had the “risk it all, go get it” approach that he himself did not.
When Yash was faced with a similar conundrum years later, Yodhin would be instrumental in guiding his brother in a different direction to his own journey. “I told my parents I’m going to take the safe route and go to the UK, and I told them you should back Yash to take this path because he is really good. The conviction that Zubin sir had was also very convincing. I think all these factors combined were the turning point in Yash’s cricket career. He moved to India in a span of three weeks after that.”
The logistics of the move were made easier by the fact that the family had roots in Bangalore. The boys’ father moved to the city 15 years ago, and they had spent three months there during their summer holidays each year. “All of our extended family lives in Bangalore, our grandparents live in Bangalore. We both speak fluent Kannada, we speak fluent Tulu. We’re very much from Bangalore in that sense,” says Yodhin.
Once in India, Yash was firmly under the Royals’ wing. The franchise not only remained patient but also supportive even as Yash completed a two-year residency period to qualify as a local player in Karnataka. They ensured he was a regular at RR’s off-season camps and training sessions around the country, often bowling to stars like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag. Then came a big break in the Maharaja Trophy, where playing for the Hubli Tigers, Yash finished as the season’s second-highest wicket-taker with 23 scalps in 10 games.
“He really enjoyed his time with the team and with Vinay Kumar Sir in particular. Devdutt (Padikkal) was also in the same team, so bowling to the likes of him, and taking their input on the way he’s bowling, played a key role in his performance in that tournament. It was also his first time really testing his ability against the cream of the crop within Karnataka, so performing well in that tournament really gave him a heap load of confidence,” recalls Yodhin.
Royals’ faith in Punja was underlined when he played ahead of the more experienced Bishnoi ©IPL
“Yash is the kind of person who believes in himself 100 percent. He knew that if he stuck to his plans he was going to do well, but I think just seeing those results on paper made a big difference for him and eventually for his selection into the IPL as well.”
When the IPL Auction came around, the Punja brothers watched it together. Despite Yash having already spent two years in the Royals camp, there were no assurances of him getting picked. “It’s either no one tells you that they’re going to pick you or everyone tells you that they’re going to pick you. We were very nervous, very unsure of what was going to happen,” Yodhin explains.
There were ten seconds of silence before the RR paddle went up and the hammer down. “Obviously we were extremely pleased when he got picked by a franchise like Rajasthan Royals, who are known for grooming youngsters and finding players out of nowhere. They’ve built that kind of reputation for themselves in the last few years,” says Yodhin.
After the leg spinner’s debut, the Royals’ faith in him was further underlined when Yash played ahead of the more experienced Ravi Bishnoi in his next three games. While he picked up a couple more wickets against Punjab and another against GT, Yodhin believes the best is yet to come. “I know it’s only going to be upwards from here,” he says. “With the right exposure and experience, I don’t think there’s anything coming in his way of eventually playing for India as well, as long as he can continue to stay grounded, have a balanced head on his shoulders, and work hard.”
Four games in, Yash has bowled nearly as many googlies as leg-breaks. The very googly that Yodhin had spotted in their apartment corridor all those years ago remains at the heart of a collective brotherly dream.
