IPL25
Follow UsOn November 25 (Monday), the 26-year-old Gurjapneet Singh’s career went up and onwards when five-time IPL winners Chennai Super Kings snapped him up for INR 2.20 crore at the IPL 2025 Mega Auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. So, who is the left-arm pacer?
Gurjapneet is a pretty bold cricketer.
At 17, after he was repeatedly ignored in Punjab’s age-group levels, the left-arm pacer made a life-changing decision to move to Tamil Nadu. Moving to Chennai is a big move for a 17-year-old raised in Ambala, considering the linguistic and cultural differences.
In more ways than one, the two cultures are very different. While in Punjab the pacers get a fair share of opportunities to be in the limelight, Chennai's dying pitches and conditions often become a den for brewing left-arm spinners.
But that’s where Gurjapneet’s skillset as a pacer stood out amidst the competition.
The left-arm pacer made his Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) debut in 2021, and nine games into the season, despite just picking up seven wickets, Gurjapneet left quite a good impression on the selectors.
What separated him from the competition was a combination of factors.
He was a left-arm pacer, something Tamil Nadu yearned for a long time since Natarajan’s injuries started flaring up. He had that bit of pace about him that the state had not seen consistently for some time, and more importantly, Gurjapneet could bowl that hard length that made him immensely popular.
When he moved to Siechem Madurai Panthers, the left-arm pacer breathed fire in the 2023 TNPL to finish the season with 15 wickets, averaging 14.1. He primarily bowled with the new ball and later got the variations out of his bag towards the death overs, which made him quite a stellar white-ball bowler.
“Gurjapneet Singh is also an excellent prospect; Madurai [Siechem] didn’t have a good season. But I have faith in him, and hopefully, he will be part of the Tamil Nadu setup because he has good talent,” Baba Indrajith, one of Tamil Nadu’s seasoned cricketers, told Cricket.com.
According to The Indian Express, Gurjapneet was so impressive during his stint as a net bowler with the Indian side that his ability to move the ball around even surprised Virat Kohli. It was that skill that helped the left-arm pacer in his debut Ranji Trophy season, where he picked up 13 wickets, averaging 19.69, with a five-wicket haul in his debut against Saurashtra, where he accounted for Cheteshwar Pujara.
The left-arm pacer made his debut earlier for Tamil Nadu in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), where he picked up two wickets. One game and a few days later, here is Gurjapneet Singh, who has converted his net-bowling stint with CSK into a full-time opportunity.
From Ambala to Chennai, the left-arm pacer took a big jump and now has been rewarded with a hefty contract with one of the best teams in the competition.
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