Just when it seems that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has earned the biggest compliment of his life, pat comes another. Make no mistake. If there’s one name making the most noise in the cricketing world today, it’s Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Not Virat Kohli. Not MS Dhoni. The teenage batting sensation is being talked about everywhere – India, England, Australia. Opposition coaches, Indian legends, podcasters, IPL team owners and YouTubers can’t stop raving about him and what the boy wonder continues to do. Having fallen behind in the race for the Orange Cap, despite getting the quick 40s, it took Sooryavanshi just one big knock as his blazing 93 fetched him back the Orange Cap.
They say the biggest reward in cricket besides winning trophies is earning the opposition’s respect. And boy, having spent just over a year, Sooryavanshi has done that. There isn’t a single player who’s played against him that hasn’t had good things to say about the teenage sensation. Pat Cummins, Jos Buttler, Kyle Jamieson, Kagiso Rabada, Mitchell Starc… just name a bowler that hasn’t been blown away by the madness known as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
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Justin Langer is the latest in the Sooryavanshi fan club, as the Lucknow Super Giants coach not only approached him for a photo after the match but also had superlatives to describe the kid. Langer is one of the most respected figures in Australian cricket. He even served as Australia’s head coach in between and was part of Australia’s dominant run from the late 1990s to the mid 2000s. So when he says something, it carries meat.
“The scary thing is, the best way to learn how to make runs is to make runs, not by hitting some big sixes, and Sooryavanshi makes runs over and over and over again. So the scary thing going forward, if the expressions on the face of Mitch Starc and Anrich Nortje and every bowler tell a story now, what about when he learns how to bat? My gosh, he’s so young. He’s a brilliant, brilliant player and it’s a real privilege to watch him bat actually,” Langer said in the post-match press conference on Tuesday after LSG’s loss to Rajasthan Royals.
Sooryavanshi and Bradman in the same sentence
At just 15, Sooryavanshi has been compared to the who’s who of cricket, with Sachin Tendulkar being the most prominent figure, and Virat Kohli not too far. And as if these two names were not enough, Langer invoked the biggest cricketing name of all time to describe his experience of watching Sooryavanshi, the legendary Don Bradman.
“You know, people say to me, would Bradman have made so many runs in the days where, you know, they could wear helmets or blah blah blah, and I’d say, well, he would adapt. And Sooryavanshi’s that good. Wherever he plays, he’s going to adapt his game because where are they going to bowl to him? I don’t see where are they going to bowl to him. So he’ll adapt, he’ll keep getting better and better, which is scary for world cricket,” added Langer.
The legendary Bradman
Sir Don is widely regarded as the greatest batter of all time. His career average of 99.94 across 52 Tests is unlikely to ever be replicated. His technique was considered the gold standard of batting in his era, and while there remains constant debate over whether he would have succeeded in modern-day cricket, there is little reason to believe he would not have adapted. After all, several of Bradman’s feats remain untouched almost 100 years later. His 974 runs in a five-match Ashes series against England, 715 runs in Australia’s first Test series against India, along with series tallies of 810 and 758 in two other Ashes campaigns, continue to remain part of cricketing folklore.
