Rajasthan Royals’s (RR) teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 15, has impressed everyone with his fearless batting approach so far, but his biggest test could be against Mumbai Indians’s India pacer Jasprit Bumrah in Guwahati today.
Sooryavanshi has not yet faced Bumrah in the IPL and that makes this clash even more interesting. RR did face MI at last year’s IPL, but Sooryavanshi was dismissed by pacer Deepak Chahar in the very first over.
MI pacer Jasprit Bumrah
The left-handed big hitter has been in impeccable form across the last two years, since he broke into the big league. He hammered an 80-ball 175 to help India beat England by 100 runs in the U-19 World Cup final at Harare last February.
In nine IPL games so far, Vaibhav has scored 335 runs at an impressive strike rate of 213.38. At this IPL, he has scored a 17-ball 52 to help RR outclass Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets at Guwahati last week and followed it up with a 18-ball 31 in his team’s six-run win over Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on Saturday. However, today’s encounter vs MI could be Sooryavanshi’s biggest test. And his childhood coach Manish Ojha could not agree more. “Bumrah has vast experience in every format of the game. He has an awkward but extremely effective bowling action. He has great speed and can bowl accurately and with good variations too. All this will make it a huge challenge for Vaibhav,” Ojha told mid-day over the phone from Patna on Monday.
Manish Ojha
However, that does not mean his ward will back down, insisted Ojha. “If Vaibhav can maintain his shape, his game and intent against the highly matured Bumrah, then I will consider it a very big achievement for Vaibhav. Getting runs against Bumrah will be huge for Vaibhav. If he performs here, he will have proved that he can score runs not just against other bowlers, but also against the world’s best, Bumrah. I believe Vaibhav will give his 100 per cent effort and thrive on this opportunity,” Ojha said.
Speaking of his ward’s approach for this big clash, Ojha said: “Vaibhav is a mature cricketer now and makes his own decisions. I believe a batsman has to live in the present. Out there, he has to decide whether to strike the ball, if it’s there to be hit, or give respect to a good delivery. So, it will all be purely his decisions about what he wants to do while facing Bumrah,” Ojha signed off.
237.14
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s strike-rate in two IPL matches this season; the RR opener has smashed 83 runs off 35 balls
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No. of IPL matches MI have played at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, compared to seven by RR
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No. of wickets claimed by Jasprit Bumrah in two IPL matches this season
