Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s excellent end to the year continues as he racked up another ridiculous century, this time for Bihar in the Vijay Hazare Trophy opening contest against Arunachal Pradesh. Suryavanshi’s capabilities to explode for massive runs came through as he walloped 15 sixes enroute to 190 off 84 deliveries, falling short of a historic double-century.
While Suryavanshi’s record-breaking innings acted as the backbone for Bihar’s incredible score of 574, it has received as much concern and criticism for what it says about the state of domestic cricket in India as it has celebration.
Key concerns raised include the mismatch between batters and bowlers in the white-ball formats, with flat pitches and small grounds being a key concern. Another element that pundits have pointed out is that the level on show, particularly in the Plate Group. This was the second time 500 has been breached in one-day cricket, and Arunachal were the bowling team on both occasions.
Ravichandran Ashwin weighed in on the debate and had a similar point to make. He was happy to give Vaibhav Suryavanshi his flowers following the 14-year-old’s incredible feats and run of form in the last couple of months, but also indicated that having this kind of a mismatch in domestic cricket serves neither team, nor the players involved.
“Huge applause for Vaibhav Suryavanshi. But I again want to ask a question. There is a huge divide, chalk and cheese, in terms of quality with some teams. It becomes very lop-sided with some teams and there is no contest at all,” said Ashwin on his Youtube channel.
‘He is doing what he has to do…’
“It is not an ideal contest. Credit to Vaibhav for his performance. He is doing what he has to do. But if we are serious about teams like Arunachal Pradesh becoming good sides, what will this do to their confidence?” asked the former Indian spinner.
Suryavanshi’s knock was one of three centuries in the Bihar innings, with captain Sakibul Gani also striking a century in an Indian record of just 32 deliveries. These were amongst dozens of centuries scored on the first day of Vijay Hazare action, with Ishan Kishan also striking a 33-ball century.
With the difference between bat and ball becoming clearer and clearer, there is a big question the highest levels of Indian cricket must ask, with these kinds of scores not particularly helping development at a grassroots level.
