GURNOOR BRAR: Who is He and What Makes Him Dangerous

Gurnoor Brar: The boy from Mukstar in Punjab bowled in nets for Mumbai Indians as an unknown teenager. Now, at 25, Gurnoor Singh Brar is on the verge of a Test debut — at a ground in his own backyard

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, June 5

Seven years ago, Gurnoor Singh Brar was carrying drinks and bowling in practice nets for Mumbai Indians at the IPL. Nobody wrote about him. Nobody knew his name outside a tight circle of Punjab domestic cricket. Today, he is in India’s Test squad — and if selectors go with the form book, he could be running in to bowl at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium in New Chandigarh on Saturday when India takes on Afghanistan, a ground some 250 kilometres from the village in Muktsar where he grew up.

It is the kind of story Punjab cricket occasionally produces and rarely gets around to telling.

Gurnoor Brar: The Boy from Muktsar

Gurnoor Singh Brar was born on May 25, 2000, in Muktsar, one of the dusty, flat towns of southwest Punjab better known for its Maghi Mela than its cricket infrastructure. He grew up in a sports-oriented Sikh family — his father Sukhveer Brar and mother Manwinder Dhaliwal Brar encouraged sport from early on. Like most Punjab boys, he started with tennis-ball cricket on local grounds. Unlike most, he was already over six feet tall by his teens — a frame that, as coaches quickly spotted, was built for fast bowling.

He completed his schooling at Ryan International School in Chandigarh and later pursued a B.P.Ed degree from DAV College, Chandigarh. The shift from Muktsar to Chandigarh was also a shift from local cricket to structured coaching, and he refined his action through club and academy cricket in the city.

The Net Bowler Who Watched and Waited

In 2019, Gurnoor Brar got a call that most young cricketers only dream of — he was selected as a net bowler for Mumbai Indians during the IPL season. He didn’t play a competitive match. He bowled at Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya in the nets, absorbed everything he could, and went back to Punjab. That exposure to elite professional cricket — the intensity, the preparation, the demands of pace bowling at the highest level — shaped the bowler he would become.

He waited three more years before making his professional debut. His List-A debut for Punjab came in December 2022 against Goa. His first-class debut followed the same month, against Railways. He was 22 and starting from scratch in a system that offers no shortcuts

The Breakthrough Season

The 2024–25 Ranji Trophy was when everything clicked. Gurnoor Brar finished as Punjab’s most successful wicket-taker, claiming 33 wickets across 12 matches at an average of 25.66 and an economy rate of 3.43. His best figures — 5 for 14 against Bihar in Mohali — were the kind of spell that makes selectors sit up. Punjab hammered Bihar by an innings and 67 runs in that match; Gurnoor Brar was Player of the Match.

The numbers across all first-class cricket paint a consistent picture: 52 wickets in 18 matches at an average of 27.30. For a pace bowler in Indian domestic conditions, where spinners routinely dominate, those are serious numbers.

His shorter-format credentials match the red-ball record. In the 2024 Sher-e-Punjab T20 League, he was the tournament’s leading wicket-taker — 22 wickets in 11 matches.

What Makes Him Dangerous

At 6 feet 4.5 inches (some sources have him at 6’5″), Gurnoor Brar generates steep, uncomfortable bounce from lengths that shorter bowlers cannot exploit. On Indian pitches where the bounce is often variable, a bowler of his height who can land the ball in the right areas is a genuine asset. He swings the ball both ways and has a disciplined, repeatable action — the hallmark of a bowler who has worked hard on his craft rather than relying on raw talent alone.

Harbhajan Singh, who knows Punjab cricket as well as anyone, flagged him early. “He is a very good bowler, is quick and is a bit seasoned now,” Harbhajan said ahead of the IPL 2025 season after Gujarat Titans snapped Brar up at the mega auction for ₹1.30 crore — far above his base price. “I think you’ll see him taking a lot of wickets.”

Gurnoor Brar also validated himself against Australia A in September-October 2025, finishing as the joint highest wicket-taker in two unofficial Tests with 8 wickets, a result that put him firmly on the national selectors’ radar.

The IPL Path

Gurnoor Brar’s IPL journey mirrors his Ranji story — patient, unglamorous, incremental. He made his IPL debut in 2023 for Punjab Kings as a last-minute replacement for the injured Raj Angad Bawa, signed for ₹20 lakh. A modest entry. But by the 2025 IPL mega auction, Gujarat Titans recognised what they had and invested ₹1.30 crore in him. He was retained for IPL 2026.

The Call-Up and What Comes Next

When the BCCI announced India’s squads for the Afghanistan series on May 19, Gurnoor Brar’s name appeared in both the Test and ODI lists. With Jasprit Bumrah rested and Mohammed Siraj not in the Test squad, the pace attack has real openings. Brar, alongside Prasidh Krishna, is among the frontline seamers for the Test.

The Test is in New Chandigarh. The ground is half an hour from Chandigarh, where he went to school and college. If he gets his cap on June 6 or thereabouts, he will be bowling in front of a home crowd in the truest sense — at a stadium in his own city, representing his state, in the only format that matters most.

From the nets at Mumbai Indians to a Test debut at Mullanpur. Punjab cricket does not often get stories this clean.

READ: India vs Afghanistan Test — New Chandigarh Gets Its First Test Match

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