Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers said playing ODI and Test cricket will help 15-year-old Rajasthan Royals (RR) prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi “discover a whole different area of his cricket mentally and physically”, but it will be a “rocky road” for the youngster. Sooryavanshi has wowed one and all with his fearless hitting in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season, having made 440 runs in 11 innings at an average of 40.00 and a strike rate of 236.55, including two centuries and two fifties.
His audacious takedown of world-class pacers like Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, etc., has opened up talks about him being fast-tracked to the Indian T20I side.
However, he has not had a strong first-class career so far, having made just 207 runs in eight matches and 12 innings at an average of 17.25, with a fifty to his name.
Speaking on the For The Love of Cricket podcast hosted by England pace legend Stuart Broad, he said that while Sooryavanshi’s talent at this age is incredible, the batter does not yet know what Test cricket has in store for him and he could face changes in his game unless someone tells him to play as a T20I specialist, which AB feels will offer the teenager a “long and successful” career.
“I do not know how he is going to last, to be honest. At his age, the talent is incredible. But I would like to see him in other formats. In Test cricket, he doesn’t yet know what he is in for. A lot of things will change unless someone, who is a really good manager, tells him to be a T20 specialist for the rest of his life. If that’s all he plays, it’ll be a very long and successful career,” he said.
De Villiers wants him to play Test cricket and ODIs to discover more about his game, particularly Tests.
“If he does start nibbling around with ODIs and, in particular, Test cricket, he will discover a whole different area of his cricket mentally and physically. He definitely has the talent to overcome all the obstacles that may come his way. But it will not be an easy ride, and it will be a rocky road. I hope he goes that route and tries to play Test cricket for his country,” he said.
In the U19 World Cup this year, Sooryavanshi ended up as the second-highest run-getter with 439 runs in seven matches at an average of 62.71 and a strike rate of 169.49, with a century and three fifties and a best score of 175. He smacked a record-breaking 30 sixes in the competition, surpassing South Africa’s Dewald Brevis’ 18 sixes in the 2022 edition by miles. In fact, he holds the record for the most sixes in U19 World Cup history. He is also India’s leading run-getter in U19 ODIs, with 1,412 runs in 25 innings at 56.48, a strike rate of over 165, four centuries, seven fifties, and a best score of 175.
The 15-year-old has bossed the limited-overs formats. In 28 T20s, he has made 1,105 runs at an average of 40.92 and a strike rate of 215.39, including four centuries and three fifties, with a best score of 144. The Bihar batter has also made his presence felt in List A cricket, scoring 353 runs in eight innings at an average of 44.12 and a strike rate of 164.95, with a century and a fifty to his name and a best score of 190.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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