Cooper Connolly made a dream debut to guide Punjab Kings to a thrilling three-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in the TATA IPL 2026. Anil Kumble, discussed his match-winning knock on debut, GT’s bowling tactics, and the impact of the ever-dependable Yuzvendra Chahal.
Cooper Connolly spoke about his TATA IPL debut and getting to play alongside Captain Shreyas Iyer:
“I woke up in the morning with a little bit of nerves, which I was really happy about, but yeah, I was really looking forward to getting out there and playing my part the best, I can. Ricky Ponting just kept me calm and collected. He told me to play my game, go out there and dominate. It was a nice team performance. We were very strong with the ball and made things easier for ourselves. It was a really good day for us. I was looking forward to spending time out in the middle with Shreyas Iyer and just sort of picking his brains a little bit. He’s a world-class player. I’ve played a little bit of cricket with him for Australia A and Australia. He is a great player for a reason, and hopefully, I can learn as much as I can.”
On following in Shaun Marsh’s footsteps as an Australian left-hander, top-order batter for Punjab Kings:
“It was a nice moment when I got picked up. Shaun Marsh was the first person I spoke to about it and he gave me some good words. Growing up, I played at Western Australia with him for a long period of time and he has always been good to me. I looked up to him as a mentor and an idol and really enjoyed spending some time with him. It’s nice to be among the runs. There are still plenty of games to go and I am really looking forward to the rest of the tournament.”
Anil Kumble questioned GT’s tactics of bringing Prasidh Krishna into the attack so late:
“It was very surprising that the Gujarat Titans brought in Prasidh Krishna, the Purple Cap holder, only in the 13th over. The first one, of course, was a lucky breakthrough. Shreyas Iyer had been hit on the hand a couple of balls earlier, so maybe, there was a loss in concentration. It was a half-volley. He wanted to pick it up and hit it straight to the fielder. Then there was a very good ball to get Shashank Singh, that short length troubled all batters throughout the game and Prasidh found that very early in his spell. But he was brought in too late in the innings, because you rarely have a bowler bowl all four overs in the last eight overs of the innings. You can’t hold him back like that, and that’s why the last over of Prasidh Krishna went for 14 runs. For GT’s sake, Prasidh should have possibly bowled at least one over between the 6th and 10th overs, because he was ideally suited to that surface.”
On Yuzvendra Chahal breaking the back of GT’s innings with two big wickets:
“Yuzvendra Chahal is very smart. He changes his line, length, varies his speeds, you name it. He didn’t try too many variations in terms of how he set up the batter. He kept bowling slightly wider and was very smart in that sense. He looked at the conditions and then aimed for the bigger side of the ground. He knew that if someone had to take him on that side, they had to connect really well, which they couldn’t. He got a wicket, and those wickets of Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler came at the right time for Punjab Kings, because Shubman Gill was looking good to capitalise on a strong start. Unfortunately for GT, their usual approach of having one batter anchor through 15 overs, which generally gives them an advantage, didn’t quite work out.”
