File pictures of Pragyan Ojha of Deccan Chargers in action in an IPL Twenty20 match.

Bhubaneswar, April 11: A million passionate hearts beat a wee bit faster and a million pair of eyes are glued to the television sets everytime Orissa-born Pragyan Ojha comes in to bowl.

The 24-year-old left arm spinner, who was born and brought up in Khurda, is playing for the Deccan Charges team in this edition of IPL.

The “Purple Cap” winner from last year’s IPL for his highest wicket tally has had his big moments and, some misses too, but he continues to rule hearts of cricket crazy fans in the state.

“We were surprised when Pragyan was left out of the World Cup squad despite outstanding performance in the test matches and ODIs. He is a brilliant spinner and we feel proud that someone from our state is part of the IPL tournament,” said Rohit Mohanty, a college student.

As it is, fans in the state were left disappointed after Cuttack did not figure as a venue for this year’s IPL.

In the last season, the Deccan Chargers, due to the Telangana fracas, had adopted the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack as one of its “home” venues besides Vizag. Incidentally, the Chargers won both the games that it played there.

Although, Hyderbad-based Pragyan would have wanted to stage a strong comeback in this year’s IPL, he proved to be the most expensive bowler in the Chargers’ opening match against Rajasthan Royals.

“He did not seem to be in good touch in the last match that the Chargers lost by 8 wickets but I am hopeful that he will take the maximum number of wickets in the coming matches and bag the Purple Cap again,” said Rohit.

Pragyan, who moved to Hyderabad at the age of 14 to pursue his cricket, made his international debut in 2008. He is the fourth Oriya after Debasish Mohanty, Shiv Sundar Das and Sanjay Raul to have achieved this feat.

“Although Pragyan is very much part of our state, we would have liked to see him play for the Orissa Ranji team. This can be possible if budding cricketers get better facilities and our sporting infrastructure improves,” said Sagar Rout, a software engineer and Pragyan fan.