New Delhi, April 9 (IANS) Regarded as one of the most fearless young batting prodigies in the Punjab Kings (PBKS) set-up, Australia batting all-rounder Cooper Connolly on Thursday said he is ‘very thankful’ for the glowing endorsement received from skipper Shreyas Iyer and head coach Ricky Ponting following his explosive start to the season.
Connolly lit up the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 by hitting an unbeaten 72 off 44 balls in his debut game as a number three batter against the Gujarat Titans in New Chandigarh to pick the Player of the Match award and earned plaudits for anchoring the chase despite a middle-order wobble.
It was followed by a knock of 36 against Chennai Super Kings, as PBKS made it two out of two wins. “It’s been a nice start. Hopefully, we can continue winning and, yeah, continue staying at the top of the ladder. I think it’s nice. I obviously spoke to Shreya a little bit during the Australia vs India (ODI) series a couple of months back, and we just communicated and spoke.
“I enjoy watching him. I enjoy learning from him. He’s obviously said some nice words about me, but I’m very thankful for that. He’s a world-class player, but I’ll just keep trying to learn and get better and try to put my best foot forward for this team and hopefully continue to get the backing from this sort of franchise.
“Hopefully, get some wins, whether it’s with the bat in the field or with the ball. I’m just looking for my best foot forward and hoping for some team success,” said Connolly, while replying to a question from IANS on JioStar Press Room ahead of TATA IPL 2026 Rivalry Week.
Though Connolly has been earning praise for his fearlessness, he admitted that the step up to playing his first IPL game came with a significant dose of nerves. “I think when I was sitting there on the bench and getting ready to leave (for the game), I was pretty nervous. That’s probably where it all started. Probably in the morning when I woke up, I had a little bit of a feeling in my stomach, just nervous.
“But being nervous is always a good thing. Walking out to bat, I was obviously quite nervous, and then I just slowly got into it, I guess, things. The longer I was out there, the more comfortable I felt and the more I just tried to relax myself and just, I guess, play what’s in front of me,” he added.
Connolly, who will play as a specialist batter till the end of April due to a back issue hampering his left-arm spin bowling duties, further explained how the team’s culture, led by Iyer, encourages young players to express themselves without fear of failure.
“It’s always nice with the sort of positive attitude that we have around the group. It’s led by our skipper, Shreyas. He’s always positive, and he’s got this saying that I have a feeling that we know we’re going to win, and it’s not being arrogant or anything.
“It’s just about being confident in this group and what this group can achieve. I think that’s sort of stuck with this team, and he is a bit of a leader. So a lot of people in this team follow him, and he sort of leads by example.
“Everyone likes to be around him because he’s just a good person as well, both off the field and on the field. So he’s someone that everyone wants to be around. I guess players want to play under him and do well for him because he deserves that credit,” concluded Connolly.
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–IANS
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