Former Indian batter Abhinav Mukund has rated Priyansh Arya as one of the top players in IPL. The left-hander scored 475 runs at 27.94 in 17 matches of IPL 2025 to have a dream start to his IPL career.
Furthermore, his thundering strike rate of 179.24 was the third-highest in the tournament (after Nicholas Pooran and Abhishek Sharma) for players with more than 300 runs. The left-hander scored a brilliant century against CSK in the previous season.
Arya also delivered while playing for Outer Delhi Warriors in DPL 2025, scoring 303 runs in eight matches at an average of 37.88 and a strike rate of 166.48.
Mukund said Arya should be placed in the same category as Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Mukund said on ESPN Cricinfo, “I think he’ll be fine. I think he’s one of the top players in the league, where so much is being spoken about Vaibhav, and you’ve got Jaiswal. You’ve got your left-handed openers. Arya’s in the conversation.”
Mukund said the PBKS opening duo of Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya have risen through the ranks after the last IPL season.
“The Indian players, who were a little bit of an unknown quantity last year, are now in the India A ranks. Like you’ve got Priyansh Arya, who’s consistently playing India A, Prabhsimran is there. So, these guys have made it up the grade. The stocks are going up, which is a great thing to have in your side.”
The former Indian opener said PBKS top order consistently delivered for the Mohali-based franchise in the previous season.
He concluded, “I think last year what Punjab did was kept high pace at the top. They sent [Josh] Inglis at three and played Shreyas at four, which made sense. So, if they do that, and an early wicket falls, they might end up gambling with [Mitch] Owen at three and push everyone down in the order. But the one thing that they got going for them last season was the good opening start. Other than that, they constantly maintained that run rate.”
Punjab Kings will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against the Gujarat Titans at Mullanpur on 31st March.
