Not many knew about Paul Valthaty until April 13, 2011. Playing for the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in his first IPL season, the right-handed batsman smashed the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bowlers to score a sensational hundred in the history of the tournament. In fact, his unbeaten 63-ball 120 not only won KXIP the game, but it also remained as the top individual score that season. He also played a couple of games for Rajasthan Royals in IPL-2.

Injuries forced Valthaty to sit out of the game every now and then. Despite touring with the India Under-19 squad for the 2002 World Cup alongside Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan, Valthaty could not play many games because of an eye injury.

He couldn't make a comeback to competitive cricket for a long time and eventually, after the IPL ton, made his first-class debut with Himachal Pradesh during the 2011-12 season. However, he did play the first-class format again after featuring in five matches.

Unfortunately, after the 2013 edition of the cash-rich league. he lost his IPL contract as he went unsold in the 2014 auctions.