Former Indian Test opener Wasim Jaffer has showered praise on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after Men in Blue registered a 3-0 series win against Zimbabwe at Harare on Sunday. The visitors won the final and last game by 35 runs to clean sweep the series.
Sooryavanshi shone with the bat after he could not deliver the goods in three T20Is against England.
The left-hander 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.
Thus, Sooryavanshi was awarded Player of the Series for his consistent performances.
Sooryavanshi scored a fine knock of 81 runs off 49 balls with the help of eight fours and four sixes in the third T20I on Sunday. Jaffer highlighted that pressure of individual milestones doesn’t get into Sooryavanshi’s head.
Wasim Jaffer said on his YouTube Channel, “Of course, we all want him to score big hundreds, but somehow that’s not his style. He keeps playing his shots and goes for the big hits, and that’s also the reason behind his success. It’s really nice to see that the pressure of the scoreboard or individual milestones doesn’t get into his head. Even today, he played some excellent shots, but unfortunately, the catch that dismissed him was absolutely brilliant.”
Jaffer noted that Sooryavanshi plays fearless cricket throughout his innings and gets runs in big matches, while recalling the IPL playoff matches.
“He plays absolutely fearless cricket. We saw him in the IPL knockouts as well, where he missed out on two centuries after getting into the 90s. He could have easily played a few more balls and taken singles, but that’s just not his nature. That’s not how he plays the game, and that’s something to like about him.”
The former domestic giant added that one of the biggest positives for India was Sooryavanshi getting runs against Zimbabwe.
“He (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi) played two outstanding innings, and even today it looked like he might go on to score his maiden hundred. He narrowly missed out on that first century, but he has produced two really good knocks in this series. One of the biggest positives has been him scoring runs. We were already expecting Vaibhav to perform in international cricket, but I think these two innings will boost his confidence even further. Going forward, I feel he’ll play with a lot less pressure, and he has been a success story.”
Sooryavanshi would look to carry on the good show.
