All the pre-match speculation before the first T20I on Friday evening was whether Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will make his international debut or not as world champions India suffered their first-ever defeat to Ireland. The 15-year-old didn’t make the final XI but the young wonder is anticipated to earn his international debut on this tour or the future tour of England.
Sooryavanshi had scored 776 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 237.30 in this year’s IPL Former Sri Lanka captain and now the head coach and director of cricket at Rajasthan Royals, Kumar Sangakkara has shared how the young Indian prodigy told his Royals’ teammates Donovan Ferreira and Lhuan-dre Pretorius about hitting 13 sixes during a tough run-chase against Lucknow Super Giants this IPL season.
‘We played against Lucknow Super Giants this year. To win the game and continue in the tournament we had to chase down 220 (221). We batted first. Vaibhav walks out, he winks at me and says “Coach don’t worry. ‘It’s done. He enters into the changing room and says to Donovan Ferreira and Lhuan-dre Pretorius: ‘Listen, you two. I shall now strike thirteen sixes. And when I do that, you do the rest. He made ten. And when he was on five sixes, Donovan and Pretorius wondered, ‘What is he talking about? Suddenly they sat down and said, ‘We best start counting this down because this child is truly going to do it.’ “That’s the sort of confidence he has,” Sangakkara told Sky Sports.
Sooryavanshi was bought by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 1.1 crore in the 2024 IPL mega auction. Last year in IPL, Sooryavanshi became the youngest to reach an IPL hundred as he played a knock of 101 runs against Gujarat Titans. Earlier this year, the Bihar lad smashed 175 runs against England in the U-19 World Cup final to propel India to the trophy. Sooryavanshi scored 776 runs at a strike rate of 237.30 in this year’s IPL, with the teenager hitting one hundred and five half-centuries. Then the teenager was included in the Indian T20I team for Ireland and England trip and Asian Games. Sangakkara also spoke about his first encounter with Sooryavanshi and how he was struck by the teenager’s fearless attitude against bowlers like Jofra Archer and Sandeep Sharma in the nets.
“I saw Vaibhav the first time when I came to Guwahati for two weeks. And I walked to the side, there was this small awful little side net in terms of facing up to the likes of Archer and Sandeep Sharma and all the fast bowlers with new balls, no one really wanted to bat there. And I saw Vaibhav approaching and I told him, ‘I will bat.’ New balls on and I could just hear the sound of his bat, like a gunshot every single time. And I think he basically put Archer to the sword, he put Sandeep Sharma to the sword. So much so that at one point I thought Archer paused and giggled. “He was bowling fast and this 14-year-old kid was just treating him with absolute disdain,” Sangakkara continued.