England's wicketkeeper-batter Sam Billings who has represented Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Delhi Capitals (DC), is in awe of 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The Rajasthan Royals (RR) youngster made his IPL debut in the absence of their injured captain Sanju Samson. Suryavanshi stamped his authority with a first-ball six against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pacer Shardul Thakur to make jaws drop, including former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson who was in the commentary room. Billings is currently playing for Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and came across Suryavanshi's first-ball six on social media and compared his bat swing to that of legendary Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.
“This is utterly absurd!!!!! 14! First ball. Look at the bat swing too, like prime Yuvi…wow,” Billings wrote on X.
Suryavanshi hit three sixes and two fours in his 20-ball 34 cameo. He was stumped out off Aiden Markram's bowling. The youngster shared an 85-run opening stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal from 52 balls.
Suryavanshi is the 10th batter in IPL history to hit a six off the first ball of the career. He is also the fourth Indian batter to achieve the feat.
Despite a blazing start to the run chase, Avesh Khan's slog overs mastery helped LSG snatch a two-run win from the hosts at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.
Will Suryavanshi play against RCB if Samson regains fitness?
It will be interesting to see whether Suryavanshi gets a chance in the playing XII for the next match if Samson regains fitness. Their next match is against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. RR also have an option to drop Nitish Rana who has scored two half-centuries in the season. He has scored 176 runs from eight innings at an average of 25.14.
RR's playoffs chances barely alive
RR are currently eighth on the points table with six losses from eight games. They are still alive in the playoffs race but only just. Meanwhile, RR spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule said that they have not pressed the panic button. He credited head coach Rahul Dravid for keeping the dressing room environment calm.