Suyash Sharma was the stand out player for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their most recent IPL 2023 match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 6 in Eden Gardens. The leggie, who hadn’t played any professional cricket match made a memorable first impression.
KKR had to bat first after RCB captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and chose to bowl first. Despite Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s 57, KKR found themselves 89/5 in the 12th over. Then Shardul Thakur (68 in 29) and Rinku Singh (46) added 103 runs for the 6th wicket as the side recovered to 204/7 in 20 overs.
In reply, RCB batting just couldn’t cope with the KKR spin trio of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma. Narine picked 2/16 and Varun took 4/16, while the debutant Suyash picked 3/30 including the wickets of Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat and Karn Sharma.
RCB folded for 123 in 17.4 overs and lost the match by 81 runs.
19-year-old Suyash, who came in as an impact player, replacing Venkatesh Iyer, impressed one and all with his bowling ability and attitude, but the cricket fans on social media were more intrigued with his facial similarity to Olympic gold medal winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.
Long hair tucked in a bandana made him look like India’s star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and the netizens reacted hilariously to this resemblance.
Here are some reactions:
