Justin Langer has become the latest prominent cricket figure to be amazed by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, after the Rajasthan Royals batter produced another extraordinary innings in the IPL.
Langer, the former Australia Test batter who played more than 100 Tests and later coached Australia to a T20 World Cup title as well as Perth Scorchers to multiple BBL trophies, watched from the Lucknow Super Giants dugout as Sooryavanshi transformed a demanding chase into a comfortable one.
Rajasthan Royals had to pursue 221 against Langer’s Lucknow Super Giants to keep control of their own qualification chances in this IPL. Sooryavanshi’s 93 from 38 deliveries changed the complexion of the chase completely, and by the time he was dismissed, RR needed only 41 runs from the final six overs.
Langer said Sooryavanshi’s batting should be seen as a warning for world cricket.
“In all my time I’ve seen some amazing players in 35 years of cricket,” Langer said. “To see a young man bat like that, not just tonight but throughout the series, is breathtaking.
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“Do you know how I judge it? I think the last game, Mitchell Starc, who’s one of the all-time great white-ball bowlers, he’s bowling and he’s almost… you look at the expression on his face. And [Anrich] Nortje, who’s a world-class international bowler. And Sooryavanshi is hitting him and the expression on their face is such that: ‘What is happening here?’
“So whilst as an ex-batter, knowing how hard batting is, I think, ‘What is going on here?’ The bowlers are thinking, ‘What on earth is going on here?’
“It’s quite incredible actually to be able to play that way, and now have the orange cap. You know, sometimes when players play like that, there’s high risk to it, and yet he’s doing it in every form of the game and scoring a lot of runs, and ultimately that’s what the game is about.
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“And the scary thing is, the best way to learn how to make runs is to make runs, not by hitting some big sixes, and he makes runs over and over and over again. So the scary thing going forward, if the expressions on the face of Mitch Starc and Nortje and every bowler tell a story now, what about when he learns how to bat?
“My gosh, he’s so young. He’s a brilliant, brilliant player and it’s a real privilege to watch him bat actually.”
Langer also suggested that bowlers may not yet have seen the best of Sooryavanshi, saying the youngster’s ability to adapt could make him even more dangerous in the future.
“You know, people say to me, would Bradman have made so many runs in the days where, you know, they could wear helmets or blah blah blah, and I’d say, well, he would adapt,” Langer said. “And Sooryavanshi’s that good. Wherever he plays, he’s going to adapt his game because where are they going to bowl to him? I don’t see where are they going to bowl to him. So he’ll adapt, he’ll keep getting better and better, which is scary for world cricket.”
Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag, however, felt he had already watched Sooryavanshi’s finest innings so far. The young batter had to work through a difficult start, particularly against Mohsin Khan, who had bowled a wicket-maiden to him in the reverse fixture.
Sooryavanshi was on 1 off 5 balls and then 5 off 10 before accelerating dramatically. He went on to score 88 runs from the final 28 balls he faced, a knock that lifted him to the top of the IPL charts both for total runs and scoring rate.
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“I think this is his best innings,” Parag said. “I was in the dugout thinking the same thing when he was 5 off 10. From there, there’s two ways a batter can go about it. One is take it upon himself and let his ego take over and say why am I not able to hit this and why I am not getting out of this situation and then he just blindly slogs it.
“But it was really fun and curious to see, with Vaibhav being 15. He took his time. He played his first big shot over covers, which really gave me a sense of satisfaction and understanding that okay he is small but he has a larger understanding of the game. And hence he scored those runs.
“A lot of senior batters, even me at times, if I am in that situation, I would try to fight my way through and not go with a calm mindset. But what he did was commendable, and I feel that in the last two years this was his best innings that I have seen.”
