Emerging from the small Bihar town of Tajpur, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has become the biggest talking point in world cricket, with the 15-year-old’s freakish exploits in the IPL already earning him Bradman comparisons.
For many, it’s hard to get their heads around an uncapped teenager who almost singlehandedly took an average Rajasthan Royals team to the brink of an IPL final.
But his heroics — 776 runs featuring a record 72 sixes from 16 matches (average 48.50) at a staggering strike rate of 237.30 — have also echoed through the streets and homes in Pakistan.
The admiration is striking, especially considering the long history of political tensions between the two countries.
It was only last year that India banned the streaming of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches after the two nuclear-armed rivals almost came to the brink of an all-out war.
Pakistan responded by banning the streaming of IPL matches in what was a classic tit-for-tat action.
The mistrust and myriad differences, though, haven’t stopped Pakistani fans from following the jaw-dropping IPL performances of a boy from Bihar.
Cricket without borders
Not just the fans, Pakistan’s former cricketers and sports journalists showered Sooryavanshi with praise after every big knock that he produced for the Royals.
Among them is Basit Ali, a former middle-order batsman famous for scoring a 79-ball 127 against a West Indies attack featuring Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh in the final of the Pepsi Champions Trophy at Sharjah in 1993.
Ali’s videos on his YouTube channel analysing Sooryavanshi’s talent have brought fans from both countries together.
The 55-year-old is happy that his videos have received overwhelmingly positive responses from both sets of fans.
“For me, cricket always comes first. Look, I have a YouTube channel where I discuss and analyse cricket and cricketers. I never look at a player’s nationality — whether he is from India, South Africa, Bangladesh or the West Indies. When I see a good performance, I talk about it and share my perspective,” Ali told the Khaleej Times over the phone from Karachi.
“When Vaibhav misbehaved with a Pakistani bowler during the Under-19 Asia Cup, I criticised him and said he should focus only on his cricket. I’m happy to see that he has done exactly that and is now fully focused on his performances.
“The people who follow my channel expect honest opinions, and I always try to provide an honest assessment of performances. There are no borders in sport. Politics has no place in it. Sport is sport.”
Pakistani journalist Sanaullah Khan, who was banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board for an interview with Mohammad Hafeez in which the former all-rounder criticised some PCB decisions, faced no backlash from his country’s fans after sharing his candid views on Sooryavanshi.
In a video shared on his Facebook page, Khan even wondered whether any action star from the world of movies could do in reels what a young boy is achieving in real life with a bat in hand.
“In my interactions with Pakistani fans, the reaction has been remarkably great. People find him almost unnatural. What he is doing seems beyond belief,” Khan told the Khaleej Times.
“But Pakistani fans, in general, always appreciate quality cricket regardless of nationality. We have seen that repeatedly, whether during television shows, discussions, or public interactions.
“If you ask Pakistani fans to name the best batter and the best bowler in world cricket today, a majority would probably say Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah. People respect excellence. When greatness is on display, cricket fans recognise it, regardless of which country the player represents.”
Test cricket next target
Moving beyond the passion and emotion evoked by the India-Pakistan rivalry, Basit Ali then brought Test cricket to the conversation while analysing Sooryavanshi’s game.
His ultra-aggressive batting style has raised questions about whether he can adapt to the demands of red-ball cricket, where the ball swings and spins on pitches designed to favour the bowlers.
But Ali expects the left-handed opener, who has been hailed as the Bradman of T20s, to emulate what the iconic Australian did in Test cricket.
In the 149-year-old history of Test cricket, Bradman remains the only batter to have scored 300 runs in a single day of a Test match.
“I sincerely hope he (Sooryavanshi) goes on to play Test cricket for India. If he succeeds in that format, he has the potential to become the kind of player who can score 300 runs in a day. He is that special,” Ali said.
“He will redefine Test cricket. Bowlers will be scared of him. They will want his wicket as early as possible, just as teams once hunted the wickets of Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar. That’s the impact I believe he can have on the game if he fulfils his potential. I have already said on my YouTube Channel that he can score a hundred before lunch if he opens in Test cricket. He just needs to play and gain experience.”
Sooryavanshi’s ability to dominate the best bowlers, according to Ali, proves that he can take them on in any format.
“Look, he is already the Bradman of T20 cricket. Just look at the bowlers he has taken apart — Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and other world-class bowlers. To say he has benefited only from flat Indian pitches is unfair because the conditions were the same for everyone,” Ali said.
“No batter has dominated attacks the way he has this IPL season, whether against fast bowlers like Bumrah, Trent Boult and Kagiso Rabada, or spinners like Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. It only shows that God has blessed him with extraordinary talent. That is why I want to see him play Test cricket and perhaps one day score 300 runs in a single day.”
An absolute freak
Sooryavanshi, according to Sanaullah Khan, also became the poster boy of the IPL this season.
“He not only carried an otherwise ordinary Rajasthan Royals side to the brink of the IPL final, but he also breathed new life into the tournament. This was an IPL season without MS Dhoni, one of India’s biggest sporting icons, because of injury. Rohit Sharma missed a significant part of the tournament, while Jasprit Bumrah struggled for form. That left Virat Kohli and Vaibhav as the two major Indian attractions,” Khan said.
“When Kohli plays for RCB, television ratings and fan interest go up. It was the same with the Rajasthan Royals this season. Every RR match generated enormous curiosity because people wanted to watch this boy bat. I don’t have the exact numbers, but the social media trends told the story. Everyone was talking about him.”
Having covered international cricket for close to two decades, Khan said he never thought he would see a teenager making a mockery of the world’s best bowlers.
“At least in our lifetime, we haven’t seen a teenager play like this. What impresses me most is that he targets the opposition’s best bowler. When a batter dominates the premier bowler of the rival team, the morale of the entire opposition drops instantly,” Khan said.
“It’s one thing to have such a strategy, quite another to execute it under pressure in the middle. And when you consider his age, it becomes even more extraordinary. His mindset is completely different.
“If you look at his last knock (96 off 47 balls against Gujarat) he proved that he can also stay at the wicket and build an innings. He is not just a hitter. He understands how to construct a knock according to the demands of the situation. How can a young boy be so versatile and show so much maturity?”
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was weeping like a baby after his dreams of taking the Rajasthan Royals to the IPL final ended in heartbreak on Friday. But the freedom with which he batted put smiles on the faces of countless fans from both sides of the border.
