Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has showered praise on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after India registered a seven-wicket win against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday. Sooryavanshi scored a blistering knock of 50 runs off 19 balls with the help of four fours and as many sixes.
The youngster brought up his maiden T20I fifty after a difficult start to his International career. The prodigy batter was able to hit the ground running in the run-chase of 126 and a six over long-off while playing on the backfoot was the highlight of his innings.
Chopra said Sooryavanshi would have felt a little pressure after low returns on the England tour, where he had managed scores of 13, 14 and 15.
“There was a wait to see how this boy would play, when he would play, and how many runs he would score. To be very honest, it’s only a matter of when, not if, as he would definitely score runs,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“However, he would have felt a little pressure because he was a part of the team and then dropped. Now he was played again, and you realize that you need to score runs. Since he is 15 years old and probably knows only one way of playing, didn’t change his way of playing, which is a good thing,” he added.
Chopra highlighted that Blessing Muzarabani troubled Sooryavanshi a bit initially but he was able to turn a corner against Richard Ngarava.
“The first few balls with the new ball troubled him, but after that, he just turned it on. The three balls he played in Ngarava’s over told me so much about this little kid. He hit a short ball on his body for a six. Harare is a fairly decent-sized ground,” the cricketer-turned-commentator said.
“Then, he (Ngarava) tried to bowl full. He didn’t move his feet at all and hit a cover drive through the off side with balance. Then, against a slightly short ball slightly outside the off-stump, best of the lot. The six he hit over mid-off showed that the boy is special,” he added.
The second T20I between India and Zimbabwe will be played at Harare Sports Club on Saturday.
