Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (Image credit: ICC) Fourteen. It is the age when young boys stick posters of their favorite stars on the walls and cupboards of their rooms and inside their compass boxes. After Vaibhav Sooryavanshi unleashed on the hapless England bowlers on Friday, he himself became a pin-up star for many boys older than him. Why? Because for a brief period it threatened to erase the original romance that Indian cricket fans felt for the number 175. Of course, Kapil Dev’s Tunbridge Wells wonder in the 1983 World Cup will always reside rent-free in the hearts, minds and souls of Indian cricket tragedies, but Suryavanshi’s ferocity, the arrival of another skill in the land of Zimbabwe, sau, created a bond. Cricket Cathedral, Harare Sports Club.The ingenuity of a T20 bat rarely comes together with the technical excellence and purity of strokeplay required in the longer formats, but Sooryavanshi has it. The fact that he idolizes Brian Lara, who is no stranger to spending long hours at the nets, and has copied his bat swing by watching his videos saved on his phone, tells us that he knows that only big scores will keep him in the eyes of the people who matter. A certain Sachin Tendulkar had the same appetite for big runs in those early years.
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Speaking to Sooryavanshi last night, his personal trainer and former Mumbai batsman Zubin Bharucha explains his swing: “Time and space are his biggest strengths.” Bharucha elaborates that hitting thousands of balls in practice has allowed Sooryavanshi to become as good as he is. “His head falls naturally into the ball a la Viv Richards, Tendulkar and Gavaskar. The bat always stays off the line of the ball. Space, otherwise defined as distance from the body, where the elbows work, like early Tendulkar or AB de Villiers, Richards and Gavaskar.”When commentators and pundits see Sooryavanshi bat, they are surprised by the amount of time he has. He seems to have that extra split second to play the ball. Bharucha explains: “The timing is a function created by a long, high backstroke like Lara’s. But that also means she needs to hit thousands of balls in practice because timing and rhythm can go wrong because things need to sync with the rest of the body. She often talks about losing that rhythm and feeling like she can’t hit the ball. That’s normal for batsmen with such a long swing.”But hitting 1000 balls in practice takes time and living without distractions. Surely there are more interesting things to occupy a 14-year-old, especially someone who already has millions of crowns in his bank account. Bharucha says, “He’s very hungry and doesn’t need any pushing.”The young man also likes to solve problems by treating networks as a sacred space. Bharucha explains: “He has the diligence to call me before every game and ask how he can adapt. The last night was no different, the plan continued to be positive. He knew England would bowl yorkers and bouncers to slow him down and he knew he had to use the space behind the wicket rather than just trying to pull every ball.”When you have someone that talented, there is a clamor in India to push him into big cricket quickly because people are suggesting he is too good for Under-19 level. Bharucha wants people to tread carefully and says there is some way to go before calling Sooryavanshi a finished product. “They have to eliminate mistakes and know where to score runs,” he warns.Examining weaknesses as a tough taskmaster, Bharucha explains: “He finds it difficult to cut the ball. When he was in Australia, he found it difficult to play off the back foot. The front foot play is still non-existent as his front foot lands outside the line of the ball. With that back stroke, the short ball can be a problem because of all the batsman has to do to get to the ball.”What about the comparison with Tendulkar? “Tendulkar, even at 14, had a fantastic defensive technique to go along with his attacking game. Sooryavanshi is still learning the defensive piece,” says Bharucha.
