Who is Vaibhav Arora? - All you need to know about Punjab Kings' INR 2 crore recruit

The Day 2 of the IPL 2022 mega auction saw some intense bidding war for a few of the uncapped players as all the teams looked forward to giving them a platform for showcasing their potential in the 15th edition of the marquee tournament. As the U19 World Cup-winning heroes including the likes of Yash Dhull, Raj Bawa, Rajyawardhan Hangargekar, etc. succeeded in bagging IPL contracts, another young talent Vaibhav Arora also found a buyer at the two-day event.

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The 24-year-old who had entered the IPL 2022 mega auction at a base price of INR 20 lakh saw the two-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders and the 2014 finalists Punjab Kings showing interest in having him on board for the upcoming season. The bidding price shot up as the two teams kept on competing aggressively and the amount touched the one crore mark. However, it was PBKS who had the last laugh and bought the youngster for INR 2 crore.

Here’s all you need to know about the emerging talent Vaibhav Arora

The swing bowler is one of the promising cricketers of the future. He made his first-class debut for Himachal Pradesh in the 2019–20 Ranji Trophy season and then went on to make his T20 debut during the 2020-21 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

His performance in last year’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy caught the eyes of IPL scouts and three teams- former champions Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, and the five-time winners Mumbai Indians had called him up for trials and it was KKR who went on to retain him for INR 20 lakh at the IPL 2021 mini-auction.

Nonetheless, he did not feature even in a single game for Kolkata last season. The two-time winners were languishing at the seventh position in the points table during the first leg as the tournament was temporarily suspended due to a surge in the COVID-19 cases in India. The Eoin Morgan-led side then played some wonderful brand of cricket in the second leg in UAE and made it to their third IPL final where they went down to MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings.