Vaibhav Sooryavanshi – Grit, grandeur and protective feeling of a former cricketer

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (Image: IPL/BCCI)

How many adjectives are required to describe the greatness of a 15-year-old wielding the willow? A hundred? A thousand? Or maybe there are certain events that can’t be described with mere words on a large canvas? When it comes to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the third option would be the right one.

In the Qualifier 2 game played in Mullanpur, Gujarat Titans’ redoubtable pace attack kept Vaibhav relatively quiet for long periods. The operative word is relative here, as instead of Vaibhav cracking a fifty in just 15-16 deliveries, he was on 50 off 31 deliveries at one point. The plan was simple – most of the seamers would bowl on a shorter length from over the wicket, with deliveries angled away from Vaibhav. Prasidh Krishna, the fourth of the seamers, did tuck him up from around the wicket and forced a top edge, only for the catch to be dropped. However, the rest of them stuck to one strategy and executed it to near perfection.

Yet in between, Vaibhav bludgeoned a hard-length delivery from Kagiso Rabada, bowled at 153 kph, down the ground. The kind of stroke that would leave anyone wondering whether the wonderkid actually belongs to this very planet. A few overs later, he copped a blow while facing a well-directed short delivery from the same bowler.

Somewhere, that blow seemed to have woken up the young prince, as he crunched a volley of shots off the economical Jason Holder. The way he manufactured room to carve a short ball over long-off left everyone scratching their heads in sheer disbelief. He virtually blended tennis and cricket to negate the threat of a lifter from Holder.

The larger picture remained the same. Despite GT bowling exceedingly well at Vaibhav, he chiselled out a way to end up with a 46-ball 96. Yes, he once again accumulated those runs at a strike rate of over 200.

On a side note, GT’s tall bowlers continuously attacking a 15-year-old with deliveries over shoulder height didn’t sit well with one former cricketer, who took to X and said the following words.

Eventually, it is a professional sport, and his opponents are just completing the task given to them. But it brought back evocative memories of a teenaged Sachin Tendulkar being hit by Waqar Younis in Sialkot.

Of course, the conditions were different, and it was a different format. Yet there is one connecting point – whenever Tendulkar went out to bat, the entire country seemed to have a protective feeling for a teenager facing some of the best fast bowlers in the world. Irfan Pathan and many others might have felt the same way about Vaibhav yesterday.

Lest we forget Shubman Gill’s majestic hundred, which in turn steered GT to a comfortable win. But 20 years later, while sitting on a rocking chair and reminiscing old memories, Vaibhav’s innings might just flash through the mind of this writer. The day a 15-year-old kid took on a battalion of fast bowlers with grit, gambling instincts and grandeur.

The post Vaibhav Sooryavanshi – Grit, grandeur and protective feeling of a former cricketer appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



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