It's quite fitting that Xavier Bartlett's Brisbane Heat and Australia team-mates call him 'X', because he is shaping up to be an X-factor player in T20 cricket.

In Punjab Kings' IPL curtain-raiser in New Chandigarh against Gujarat Titans, Bartlett went wicketless. However, his four overs were spread across the powerplay, middle and death. He also left collective jaws on the floor when he leapt at long-on and plucked a catch out of thin air to cut Jos Buttler's innings short on 38 off 33 balls. Then, when PBKS needed 16 off 12 balls, Bartlett violently clubbed Prasidh Krishna over deep midwicket for six, highlighting the all-round value he brings to the PBKS side.

There's a chance that Bartlett may not have started for PBKS in this IPL had senior fast bowler Lockie Ferguson been available. PBKS also had the left-arm variety of Ben Dwarshuis in the reserves, who is among the highest wicket-takers in the Big Bash League [BBL], but they leant towards Bartlett because of the depth - he slots in at No. 9 in this PBKS team - and strength he offers across the board.

At 6 feet 2 inches, Bartlett is an imposing figure. He towered over everyone (except Marco Jansen, of course) when PBKS hit the nets at Chepauk on the eve of their game against Chennai Super Kings. When a local net bowler skidded one into Bartlett at the MA Chidambaram B nets, Bartlett used his long levers and step-hit him. The crack off his bat reverberated around the facility outside the main ground.

Bowling, and more specifically new-ball bowling, is Bartlett's primary skill. Since his debut in December 2020, Bartlett has taken 25 wickets in 57 innings between the first and fourth overs of the BBL. Only Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott, and Riley Meredith have more wickets than him during this period (with the benefit of more matches).

PBKS picked him in the IPL 2025 mega-auction for his powerplay skills. Bartlett bowled ten overs across four matches in the previous season, and of those, eight came in the powerplay. Between IPLs, Bartlett has levelled up, developing defensive skills, which now make him just as threatening in the middle and end overs. He also has a new deceptive offcutter in his repertoire, and has been nailing his yorkers in the BBL as well as the USA's Major League Cricket [MLC].

In the most recent BBL, nobody bowled more yorkers than Bartlett's ten. In MLC 2025 as well, he came alive at the death with his yorkers for San Francisco Unicorns. Whether he can be as potent under pressure in the IPL remains to be seen, but Brad Haddin, the Punjab Kings assistant coach, is enthused about the progress Bartlett has made between IPLs.

"Yeah, I think if you have a close look at Xavier Bartlett's game, he's improved a lot over the last 12 months," Haddin said. "I think when we first came to the Kings, he was predominantly a new-ball bowler and he had some really good skills with the new ball. And we've seen that in his short international career. But I think if you have a close look at where his game has developed, he has developed a really good game at the end of an innings as well.

"With the way he plans out his last few overs, he did a really good job. His batting has come a long way over the last 12 months. He's a really reliable late-order hitter now. And we've seen that when the pressure was on in the last game. The other thing you forget with Xavier too is his fielding. He took a crucial catch the other night to get rid of Jos Butler on the boundary."

One net session with coach Ricky Ponting in IPL 2025 freed him up as a batter. Bartlett then headed to the MLC and whacked an unbeaten 59 off 25 balls for his first T20 half-century, against MI New York. Earlier in January this year, he scored an unbeaten 34 off 25 balls in a T20I against Pakistan in Lahore.

"It was something simple that he [Ponting] really said about trying to get my hands up and not sort of going down through the ball," Bartlett said during MLC 2025. "So, something simple like that really helped me and lucky enough, I showed. That was one of the things I really took from the IPL and all the stuff I learnt bowling as well."

For all his heroics in the BBL and MLC, X is an unknown 27-year-old in the IPL right now. If he taps into his broadened skills and range this season, he could well become an X-factor in the biggest T20 league in the world. Who knows?