Former India cricketer R Ashwin was in awe of India’s teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. This came after the 14-year-old wonderkid led India U19 to a 3-0 series win over South Africa U19 in the recent one-day series.
Sooryavanshi had scored a fifty in the second one-dayer, but came into his true form in the third and final match, which was played in Benoni. After being asked to bat first, Indian openers Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Aaron George hammered the Proteas bowlers to all parts of the Benoni ground, in a 227-run partnership for the first wicket.
Aaron George made 118 in 106 balls with 16 fours, while Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was the main aggressor. He hit 10 sixes and nine boundaries before getting out for 127 (74 balls) in the 26th over. He had reached his century in just 63 balls in a dominating show of batting.
India made 393/7 in 50 overs and bowled out South Africa U19 for 160 runs to win the match by 233 runs and pocketed the series 3-0.
Sooryavanshi has shown great form with the bat as he had scored 190 for Bihar in the Vijay Hazare Trophy before coming to South Africa.
His consistency in making centuries and quick runs impressed R Ashwin so much that he took to X to make a post praising the 14-year-old.
Ashwin, a veteran of Indian cricket, laid out Sooryavanshi's recent numbers in stark fashion, allowing the statistics to tell their own story.
“171(95), 50(26), 190(84), 68(24), 108*(61), 46(25) & 127(74) today. These are just some of Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s scores in the last 30 days across domestic & U19 cricket. Enna thambi, indha adi podhuma, illa innum konjam venuma? Translation (what’s all this, brother? Is this sample enough or are you going to raise the bar further )
You can't explain in words what this kid is doing at 14. With the U19 WC round the corne,r where he’s expected to be the showstopper, followed immediately by the leap to the IPL for his first full season as an opener stepping into the big shoes of Sanju, the next four months of #VaibhavWatch is going to be exciting, telling us everything about his temperament, hunger & character,” Ashwin posted.
Across the three-match series, the teenage captain topped the run charts with 206 runs at a strike rate north of 187. Overall, he has 973 runs in 18 Youth ODIs, an average of over 54, and three hundreds to his name.
