Punjab Kings comfortably defeated defending champions Chennai Super Kings in their 3rd match. However, Vaibhav Arora became the cynosure of all eyes for his spectacular bowling performance of 2/21 in 4 overs against them.
Vaibhav Arora has an inspiring story for every youngster who dreams to play the highest level of cricket and yet fails in the process due to uncountable reasons. From not getting the opportunity for Punjab U-19 to playing for Himachal Pradesh U-19 team to Punjab Kings net bowler to Kolkata Knight Riders player to finally debuting in IPL with Punjab Kings.
About Vaibhav Arora
Vaibhav Arora is 24 years old and was born on 14 December 1997. Vaibhav Arora hails from a lower-middle-class family and is a son of a dairy farmer in Punjab. He bowls right-arm fast to knock off batters wickets with his fiery bowling. A fun fact is that Arshdeep Singh & Vaibhav Arora are close friends who played together for Punjab. However, Arshdeep Singh made his debut way back for Punjab Kings than him.
Vaibhav Arora’s Cricket Journey
Both Arshdeep Singh & Vaibhav Arora used to play for Sri Guru Gobind Singh College in Chandigarh and went together for a Punjab Cricket Association camp held in 2017, however they met with an accident and both of them suffered major blows on their knees and elbows.
After this incident, Vaibhav Arora did get picked up for the Punjab U-19 team thrice, however he didn’t get the opportunity to play any match. Whereas, Arshdeep Singh went on to be named in the India U-19 team and further been picked up by Punjab Kings in IPL 2020.
Vaibhav Arora lost all hopes after not getting a single opportunity to play for Punjab U-19 and asked his coach to look for a private job for him as his father’s business was running in loss. However, his coach instead helped him move to Himachal Pradesh and play for the Himachal Pradesh U-23 team.
Playing for Himachal Pradesh brought a major breakthrough in his career in cricket but it wasn’t a cakewalk. Vaibhav Arora played his first match and there were almost 7 catches dropped on his bowling. This made him feel dejected and again told his coach that he want to quit cricket to which his coach replied- ” I told him to get a quitter tattoo on his forehead and never call me again”
He decided to give another shot to cricket and in the next match, he picked up a 5 wicket haul for his team and got the recognition he deserved for his hard work. He didn’t stop at this and became the leading wicket-taker of the tournament for his 26 wickets in 9 matches which also fast-tracked his process for the Himachal Pradesh Ranji team.
Vaibhav Arora debuted against Saurashtra in the Ranji trophy match and registered the best figures with 9 wickets in his pockets. This was his moment where he became the talk of every scout and thus earned a call up by Mumbai Indian, Kolkata Knight Riders camp. However, he didn’t impress them enough as he went unsold in IPL 2020 auction.
Though, Arshdeep Singh rescued him and earned him a net bowler role in Punjab Kings. Vaibhav Arora has spoken about how being a net bowler helped him gain confidence after bowling to KL Rahul, Chris Gayle and a plethora of legends in Punjab’s camp.
IPL 2021 auction and finally Vaibhav Arora earned his contract with Kolkata Knight Riders but wasn’t fortunate enough to debut for them. Nevertheless, the pacer went back into the mega auction pool for IPL 2022, only to have a pay rise as he was bought by Punjab Kings for 2 crores after a bidding war with KKR.
FYI, Vaibhav Arora called up his coach before debuting against Chennai Super Kings and said- ” I have an intuition that I might play today” further he went on to deliver the match-winning performance against them as Punjab Kings defeated CSK by 54 runs.
