Former Indian opening batter and commentator Aakash Chopra has heaped praise on the Indian teen batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who scored his maiden half-century against Zimbabwe on Thursday, July 23.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra has reckoned that Sooryavanshi might have felt a little pressure after taking the field in the 126-run chase against Zimbabwe. Notably, Sooryavanshi was dropped for the fifth and final T20I against England with Samson occupying his spot in the XI.
“There was a wait to see how this boy would play, when he would play, and how many runs he would score. To be very honest, it’s only a matter of when, not if, as he would definitely score runs,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“However, he would have felt a little pressure because he was a part of the team and then dropped. Now he was played again, and you realize that you need to score runs. Since he is 15 years old and probably knows only one way of playing, didn’t change his way of playing, which is a good thing,” he added.
With his maiden half-century, Sooryavanshi emerged as the youngest to score a fifty in international cricket, surpassing Nepal’s Kushal Malla, who was 15 years and 340 days old against the USA. Sooryavanshi achieved the feat at the age of 15 years and 118 days.
“The first few balls with the new ball troubled him, but after that, he just turned it on. The three balls he played in Ngarava’s over told me so much about this little kid. He hit a short ball on his body for a six. Harare is a fairly decent-sized ground,” he said.
“Then, he (Ngarava) tried to bowl full. He didn’t move his feet at all and hit a cover drive through the off side with balance. Then, against a slightly short ball slightly outside the off-stump, best of the lot. The six he hit over mid-off showed that the boy is special,” he stated.
“This is just the start. We will talk a lot about him. That’s the kind of player he is. After that, he bent down on one knee and hit a six. There is no doubt that he is an extremely entertaining player. He has finally arrived on the international scene as well. Abhishek started from here only two years ago. Vaibhav Suryavanshi, you never know,” he concluded.
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