Former Indian keeper-batter Robin Uthappa has opened up on the Indian teen batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who was adjudged the player of the series in the just-concluded Zimbabwe tour.
Speaking on the CommBoxTV YouTube channel, Uthappa has stated that Sooryavanshi has a similar technique to Sir Don Bradman, where he rarely got out LBW. Notably, Sooryavanshi had an excellent Zimbabwe tour as he amassed 151 runs from three games.
“It’s hard to say that now. We haven’t really seen the bowlers respond to what Vaibhav is doing. People are just coming to terms with the way he’s batting. So we’ll have to wait and see. Because when Bradman was batting the way he did, what they resorted to was bodyline. Vaibhav has a similar technique to Bradman, where he almost never got out LBW,” Robin Uthappa said on the CommBoxTV YouTube channel.
“If Vaibhav can maintain an average in the high 40s with his strike rate, he could be considered an outlier. It would have also been interesting to see if the World War 2 hadn’t happened and Bradman had played 30 Tests more, would be have still averaged 99 or over a 100?” he questioned.
Furthermore, the former keeper-batter also compared Sooryavanshi’s rise to the legendary captain MS Dhoni’s unique wicketkeeping and batting style. In his T20 career so far, Sooryavanshi has an average of 43 and a strike rate of 216.32.
“Outliers also happen a lot more now than ever before. It’s because people aren’t reliant on traditional bowling or batting techniques. Any technique has become more acceptable today. More players are relying on their natural god-given ability than a particular way of playing,” said Uthappa.
“That’s why an MS Dhoni was accepted as he did his own thing, similar to Vaibhav now, who’s doing his own thing. Yet, you still enjoy a Sachin Tendulkar, Shubman Gill or Virat Kohli, who bat their own way as well,” he concluded.
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