Making the most of his opportunities, Rajasthan Royals batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has already made enough noise to trigger the chatter around his potential India selection. The 15-year-old batter has set the IPL on fire with his blitzkrieg, scoring sixes for fun. But, there is one concerning aspect about his stint in the T20 league that has concerned experts. Former India batter-turned-pundit, Sanjay Manjrekar, feels the fact that Sooryavanshi is playing as an Impact Player is hurting his growth as an all-round cricketer.
Sooryavanshi is barely seen fielding on the ground for the Royals, with the management using him as a pure batter. When RR’s turn to field comes, the teenage prodigy is often seen on the bench. Hence, Manjrekar is concerned about his development as a fielder.
“I’m increasingly thinking that we have to do away with impact sub for this reason as well. Is that what you want to see about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, just the one side of him? Yeah. Isn’t a cricketer somebody who bats well and fields well as well? Earlier, we used to respect, and in Inzamam-ul-Haq for his batting, but you saw the other side of his as well, as a or whatever. And that helped you sort of gauge and rate that player. Just using somebody’s hitting abilities to get him to play 6 balls, that’s it, and you don’t see the other side,” Manjrekar said on the Insight Edge Podcast.
“We are not expecting to see all 3 dimensions of a player. But the more I think of it, it all makes sense, and you’re right, Sooryavanshi, you want to see him be on the field and see what happens and be put under pressure as well. If he is a great batter, but a slight liability in the field, I’d like to see that exploited. That is also something we have experienced as fielders when we drop a catch at the tension that comes with it, which is going to be batting and chilling. You don’t want one of the highest sort of levels of the sport to be that easy,” he added.
When asked if this rule is hampering Sooryavanshi’s growth as a fielder, Manjrekar said: “Absolutely.”
He added: “And that is an issue that’s going to be there. India won the T20 World Cup despite the impact player rule being there, despite a guy like Shivam Dube not bowling at all, but still doing well in the T20 World Cup. So things are happening. But I believe that a cricketer, not somebody, will just come in and tuck, tuck, tuck, then take a break and enjoy life. I just wanted to become a little more testing for every player, not just if he is a good bowler, bowls his 4 overs, I’d like to see him in the field as well,” said Manjrekar.
“When I saw Rohit Sharma bat in the last game, he got 22 runs in 15 balls. I mean, I’m not somebody who wants to focus too much on how much money he’s getting, but for 15 balls, he’s going to get paid the entire match fees or whatever. So when there is easy money to be made and a reward for very little effort, you’ve got to start worrying about that model because that’s never going to be a long-term, successful model,” said Manjrekar.
A number of current cricketers, playing in the IPL, have voiced their concern over the Impact Player rule. While many players have said that they would rather not have this option, the BCCI hasn’t shown signs of a U-turn yet.
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