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While ‘Baby AB’ aka South Africa’s Dewald Brevis is yet to make his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut, KL Rahul has identified the Mr. 360 degree player in his team after first encounter. On March 29, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) suffered a batting collapse and were reduced to 29/4 against Gujarat Titans (GT). After the collapse, experienced campaigner Deepak Hooda and debutant Ayush Badoni did damage control and helped LSG post a fighting total. In the death overs, Badoni impressed with his strokeplay and earned the ‘Baby AB’ title from his skipper Rahul.
“He's (Badoni) baby AB. He has been phenomenal from the first day. For a little boy he packs a punch and plays 360 degrees, so happy for him as he grabbed the opportunity. It was not ideal for him to walk out with us four down but he did well under pressure and hopefully he can continue doing that,” the LSG skipper said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Badoni struggled to time the ball first as he walked in the middle inside powerplay overs. However, towards the end of the innings he accelerated and even hit Hardik Pandya square of the wicket to get some crucial boundaries for his team. He got out in the last over but not before scoring 54 runs from 41 deliveries. His debut knock included four fours and three sixes.
Despite the five-wicket loss, Rahul was happy with his team’s performance after a major setback in the powerplay overs.
“It was a phenomenal game. What a way to start the campaign. Starting off like that with the bat was not ideal but the way we recovered was phenomenal. It gives us so much confidence when the batters in the middle and lower order can do the job,” the 29-year-old said.
The 22-year-old was picked for his base price of Rs 20 lakh in the IPL 2022 mega auction. Before making his IPL debut, the Delhi-born batter had played just five T20s in the Syed Mushtaq Ali 2021. He got to bat just once for Delhi and scored eight runs against Puducherry.
