Harpreet Brar: The Constant in Punjab Kings' Ever-Changing Landscape

Harpreet Brar has lived through almost everything Punjab Kings have thrown at a player. A rebrand. Seven captains. Endless chopping and changing. Still no title.

Through all that churn, one thing has barely moved: a tall left-arm spinner from Moga, quietly turning up since 2019, often without fanfare, almost always without fuss.

He has completed only two full seasons out of seven. Yet no PBKS spinner has taken more wickets than him in that period. For a franchise that seems permanently in rebuild, Brar has become the oddity – a constant who rarely feels secure.

The night that changed his name

Ask the average IPL fan about Harpreet Brar and one memory jumps out. RCB. A young, unheralded left-arm spinner. Three giants in his pocket.

• Virat Kohli.
• Glenn Maxwell.
• AB de Villiers.

Kohli and Maxwell went off successive balls, de Villiers followed soon after. A career-defining spell, two years into his IPL journey, that instantly etched his name into the league’s folklore. The story still follows him around.

“Yes, they asked me in another interview ten minutes ago,” he laughs, when the triple-strike is mentioned again.

Since then, Maxwell has fallen to him three more times in the IPL, Kohli once again. The victims’ list is crowded with big names – Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, others who dominate the league’s highlight reels. But for Brar, one name still sits apart.

“After Virat paaji, there’s no batsman whose aura is such that their wicket can be remembered,” he tells Cricbuzz. One box, though, remains unticked. “I haven’t yet dismissed Shubman Gill in the IPL… I would definitely like to take Gill’s wicket in my career.”

Then comes the sting.

“For the last 3-4 years, whenever there’s a match against him, I am not playing.”

Impact Player, reduced impact

That line keeps returning. Not playing. Not in the XI. On the bench.

Across the last two seasons, Brar has spent more time watching than bowling. In IPL 2026, he played just twice – one game in April, one in May. On a flat deck against Rajasthan Royals, he sent down four overs for 25 in a 222 vs 228 run-fest. Against RCB, he took 2 for 35, removing Jacob Bethell and Devdutt Padikkal, two of only four wickets to fall in another 222.

In a season where bat dominated almost every evening, those were solid, control-heavy spells. On paper, they should have bought him more time. On the ground, they didn’t move the needle.

His entire role has been reshaped by one regulation: the Impact Player rule.

In the old template, Brar walked into XIs as a frontline spinner who could bat at No.7, giving the side a handy cushion down the order. Now, with teams essentially getting a “free” specialist through the rule, his batting value has shrunk. He is picked or parked based on match-ups, surfaces and balance calls.

On flatter tracks, captains reach for more batting depth or an extra quick. Brar slides down the pecking order.

“Sir, main na sirf kaam hi kar sakta hu (I can only work on things),” he says, when asked about his batting. The frustration is clear, the realism sharper. “The way cricket is going on now, there is the Impact Player rule, because of which I have gone down one spot further.”

He knows the hierarchy. If he plays, only Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal are below him. Marco Jansen can bat. If Azmatullah Omarzai plays, he goes above Brar too.

The equation is brutal.

“If our batting comes first, I will not be in the team,” he explains. “If bowling comes, I will be in the team. If the total is more, the pacer plays. This is how it is.”

He doesn’t hide his view on the rule.

“Personally, Impact Player is not good for me because I want to play all games. Every player wants to play more. So yeah, I have been working on my batting – I have been doing that for eight years. But I am not getting enough chances.”

There is a faint glimmer. The rule came up at a Captains’ Meeting before IPL 2026. Several senior players have spoken against it, and franchises are being asked for feedback. For now, indications are that the Impact Player stays at least one more season.

For Brar, that likely means another year of uncertainty.

A spinner in a pace-heavy world

The numbers tell their own story about Punjab’s priorities. In 2026, PBKS bowled the lowest percentage of spin in the league: just 18.7% of their overs. They took the fewest wickets with spin too – 14 – a joint-low in their history.

It’s a striking contrast to the years they went deep. In 2014 and 2025, their two final runs, spin delivered its highest share of wickets for the franchise – 33% and 32% respectively.

This season, the spin attack barely stretched beyond Chahal. Brar was the spare part, not the second pillar.

Yet his reputation outside the IPL is anything but peripheral. Since 2023, no spinner has taken more wickets than him in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He has also stepped out of the white-ball pigeonhole, making his Ranji Trophy debut last year and instantly becoming Punjab’s leading wicket-taker.

The irony is sharp: form and numbers away from the IPL are rising; IPL game time is shrinking. He hasn’t played any professional cricket since May.

Work in the shadows

Last month, Punjab Kings called a small off-season camp. Just six players, including Brar, worked closely with the strength and conditioning and assistant coaches.

“I worked on plenty of things in detail,” he says. “How can I get better… how can I bowl better?”

The bigger battle, though, is mental. When you perform and still don’t see your name on the next team sheet, the temptation to sulk is obvious.

“When you do well for your team, and suddenly, you are not in the first XI for the next game. Dukh lagta hai (it hurts),” he admits. “But as a cricketer, team always comes first, which is our motto. We must go as per the demands of the team. But it doesn't mean that if I am not playing, I’ll just sit and feel low.”

He leans on the dressing-room leaders. Shreyas Iyer and Ricky Ponting, he says, are “very similar kinds of people” – practical, approachable, direct.

“If I have a question in mind, I will go and ask them. They will always answer it in the right manner.”

He seeks them out when they’re alone, asking about their own careers, their experiences of selection and rejection, and what more he must do to force his way back in. It’s a constant hustle for information, for clarity, for a path.

Chasing cricket, wherever it is

The hustle doesn’t stop with franchise camps.

Brar’s wife works as a doctor in the United Kingdom, so post-IPL, the couple often heads there. He treats those trips as much as cricketing missions as personal breaks.

This year, he played club matches in the UK after the IPL. The logic is simple: if there’s a game on, he wants in.

“Even when you go for some free time after the IPL, say for a vacation… Even if matches are on the weekend, I want to play and stay associated with the game whenever I have free time,” he says.

Last year, that mindset took him within touching distance of the India Test squad. During England’s tour, Brar was in Birmingham when the national team trained. He saw an opening and took it, messaging India captain Shubman Gill to ask if he could join practice.

“He said, ‘Yes, you can come,’” Brar recalls. Gill himself skipped the optional session, but Brar trained with the rest of the group. A small window, a big experience.

“I practiced with the team and really liked it. Also, it’s always great to meet your own people on foreign soil!”

Red ball, bigger dream

For now, Brar is back home, playing the state T20 league in Punjab, leaning again on the white-ball skills that made his name. The more intriguing chapter, though, lies ahead: a second Ranji Trophy season.

In an era where Impact Players can suffocate the specialist T20 spinner, the red ball offers him something the IPL currently doesn’t – control over his destiny and a different route to the top.

He made that intent clear in his debut Ranji campaign in 2025-26. Twenty-three wickets at 21.26. More than any other Punjab bowler.

He added more marquee names to his personal scrapbook. KL Rahul, in particular, will remember the ball that ripped past his defence and crashed into middle stump – a dismissal that would have looked at home on any Test highlights reel.

“Personally, I feel I can play Test cricket for India,” Brar says. “And for that, I am willing to put in all the hard work needed and will even exceed that in the future.”

Seven seasons in, Harpreet Brar remains a constant in a franchise that rarely sits still. The question now is no longer whether he can bowl – his record has answered that – but which format, and which system, finally gives him the stage he has spent years chasing.