“I was just watching [the auction] with sort of a blank mind,” Subramanyan said. “My name came up and Sunrisers put the panel up for me – it’s a moment I will never forget.”

Now the 24-year-old has another chance to make history as he sets his sights on bowling to the likes of Kohli, Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav.

If opportunity knocks, Subramanyan plans to approach that daunting task by sticking to his tried and tested process.

“[It’s about] looking at my action and making sure that my alignment is good, my running speed is good and everything is flowing,” he said.

“But it’s a combination of both backing my strengths and looking at what the batsman’s strengths and weaknesses are, and planning accordingly.”

Subramanyan snaffled a wicket every 18 balls at an economy rate of 6.5 in last year’s TNPL. Four dismissals in the final helped alert the Sunrisers, the IPL’s 2016 victors.

“In terms of getting picked for the IPL, performing in the TNPL was very important,” Subramanyan said. “Obviously it’s televised, many people are watching – a lot of the talent scouts come and watch these games.”

The IPL is on another scale altogether, attracting almost 30 times as many viewers per season as American football’s NFL.

Leg-spinners play a decisive role in T20 cricket and in the 2019 and 2022 IPLs emerged as leading wicket-takers. Modern T20 batting, featuring expansive aerial shots, often falls victim to clever exponents such as Afghanistan phenomenon Rashid Khan.

Subramanyan, whose parents are Indian, is the Sunrisers’ only leg-spinner who has not yet played for a Test nation, although he has already tasted international cricket at the lower non-Test level, with Hong Kong.

He remains eligible to represent the city, but Subramanyan would like to challenge for honours with India.

There is nonetheless a debt of gratitude to his birthplace, where he began his playing career at Hong Kong Cricket Club. Subramanyan was turning out for Asia’s oldest cricket club’s Sunday league Scorpions team when the then 17-year-old’s name first entered the national reckoning.

The 2017 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup marked the start of his stint with the Hong Kong men’s team, for whom he played seven times.

In Hong Kong’s third match of the tournament, against Nepal, Subramanyan spearheaded his team’s bowling attack. Before the contest, Hong Kong had reached out to Pakistan’s emerging nations coach to give Subramanyan practice as a net bowler.

“[Bowling to the Pakistan emerging nations squad] was only possible because of the Hong Kong management,” Subramanyan said. “They spoke to [the Pakistani coach] and said, ‘Have a look at this leg-spinner.’ That was really nice of everybody in Hong Kong … it gave me the opportunity to bowl to Pakistani batsmen.”

While Subramanyan attributed his basic development to the work of his primary coaches in Hong Kong such as Simon Cook, he also learned the finer points of sporting decorum from HKCC mainstay and mentor George Lamplough.

“[Lamplough] really helped out a lot from a skill point of view but also from an etiquette perspective,” Subramanyan said. “He taught us a lot of things about how to conduct ourselves on the field, which certainly was a great learning for me. I try to conduct myself in a way that I was taught by Hong Kong Cricket Club.”

Subramanyan went on to play for Durham University’s first XI, after which he settled in India to further his cricketing aspirations.

The potential for a meteoric rise in the IPL could soon be realised.