Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa has compared Vaibhav Sooryavanshi with legendary Sir Don Bradman after the T20I series win against Zimbabwe. Sooryavanshi has taken the cricketing world by storm with his blistering batting and he has been the cynosure of all eyes.
Sooryavanshi returned with scores of 50, 20 and 81 in the three games against Zimbabwe. The youngster scored a total of 151 runs in three matches at an average of 50.33 and a strike rate of 196.10 against the hosts.
The prodigy batter had managed 42 runs in three T20Is against England and thus it was a crucial series for him against Zimbabwe.
When asked if Sooryavanshi can become the Bradman of this era, Robin Uthappa said on CommBox YouTube Channel, “It’s hard to say that now. We haven’t really seen the bowlers respond to what Vaibhav is doing. People are just coming to terms with the way he’s batting. So we’ll have to wait and see. Because when Bradman was batting the way he did, what they resorted to was bodyline. Vaibhav has a similar technique to Bradman, where he almost never got out LBW.”
“If Vaibhav can maintain an average in the high 40s with his strike rate, he could be considered an outlier. It would have also been interesting to see if the World War 2 hadn’t happened and Bradman had played 30 Tests more, would be have still averaged 99 or over a 100?”
Uthappa said outliers also happen more often these days and players with their own technique are backed if they can find success at the top level.
“Outliers also happen a lot more now than ever before. It’s because people aren’t reliant on traditional bowling or batting techniques. Any technique has become more acceptable today. More players are relying on their natural god-given ability than a particular way of playing,” said Uthappa (via the aforementioned source).
“That’s why an MS Dhoni was accepted as he did his own thing, similar to Vaibhav now, who’s doing his own thing. Yet, you still enjoy a Sachin Tendulkar, Shubman Gill or Virat Kohli, who bat their own way as well.”
Sooryavanshi would look to keep up the good form.
