Kamal Ghorui
NEW CHANDIGARH: He woke up in the morning with nerves on Tuesday. “Which I was really happy about,” Cooper Connolly said after leading Punjab Kings to a three-wicket win over Gujarat Titans.For Connolly, it wasn’t the nerves, but the “happiness” about having them. That small detail captures something essential about this 22-year-old from Perth. He doesn’t run from pressure. And on Tuesday night in New Chandigarh, he walked out to bat like a man arriving exactly where he was always meant to be.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!By the time he was done, Connolly had scored an unbeaten 72 off 44, guided Punjab to their first win of IPL-2026, taking Player of the Match honours on IPL debut, and left his new teammate Yuzvendra Chahal making declarations on his behalf.“He’s only 20 something but has the hunger to excel on the big stage,” Chahal said in the post-match presser. “The way he performed in his very first match, batting at No. 3, playing a match-winning innings, shows how mature he is mentally.”Awareness is a word that comes up often around Connolly. It is there in how he builds an innings and in how he resists the urge to overhit. He describes himself as: “I’m just more of a tempo player, try to feel the flow of my hands, I don’t hit too many big sixes, it’s more about timing.”Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer offered something more considered than ordinary praise. “I’ve seen him in the past as well, playing for Australia. He’s got a great mindset and hopefully he continues with the same form,” Iyer said.Connolly has modelled himself after Shaun Marsh, the former Australian left-handed opening batsman who too came from Western Australia like Connolly. There is also something poetic that Connolly now plays for the very franchise Marsh once represented. “Shaun Marsh played for the Punjab Kings, and I grew up watching him. It’s sort of an honour to play for the same franchise as him,” Connolly said.Connolly also credited Punjab head coach Ricky Ponting for easing the pressure on him. “Ricky Ponting just kept me calm and collected,” Connolly said. “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.”Connolly traces his journey through the WACA’s (Western Australia Cricket Association) development pipeline. He is part of a generation that came of age in the Big Bash League’s glare, while still respecting the grind of Sheffield Shield cricket. He also captained Australia at the 2022 ICC Under-19 World Cup.His big-match temperament was first seen in the 2022-23 BBL final, where he hit an unbeaten 25 off 11 balls in just his second T20 innings to lift Perth Scorchers to the title. His first-class debut arrived in the 2023-24 Sheffield Shield final against Tasmania, where he scored 90 in the first innings as Western Australia won the title. First big-format match, high pressure game and a game-changing knock. There is a pattern here, and it is not coincidental. “I actually don’t mind a bit of pressure. I feel like that suits the sort of style of person I am,” Connolly stated.
