Lucknow Super Giants coach Justin Langer has been blown away by the talent of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and after LSG’s match against Rajasthan Royals, he requested the 15-year-old for a selfie and he happily obliged.
In the same match, batting first LSG had scored 220 for 5. But Sooryavanshi made light work of the chase by slamming a 38-ball 93. A day after the teenage batting prodigy broke Chris Gayle’s record for most sixes in an IPL season, the former Australian opener wrote a long LinkedIn post, lauding the wonder kid from Bihar.
In that same post he revealed that it is for the second time he has ever asked an athlete for a selfie. The first instance happened two years ago at Perth’s multi-purpose Optus Stadium, where Langer shared the frame with his childhood hero Football League legend, Stephen Michael.
“Last week I did something I have only done twice in my life. I asked another athlete for a selfie. The first time was for my childhood AFL hero, South Fremantle’s Stephen Michael, a couple of years ago at Optus Stadium. The second was a 15-year-old boy from a village in Bihar,” wrote Langer.
“Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had just smashed my Lucknow Super Giants to every part of the ground. He has hit 53 sixes this IPL season – the second most by any batter in any T20 tournament in history, behind only Chris Gayle. He is the youngest centurion in men’s T20 cricket. He is 15,” he added.
“After 35 years in the game, I simply can’t believe how this kid plays. He is nothing like I have seen before. He did it again last night in the play off Final. It got me thinking about talent – the word we use most often and understand least.”
Langer also compared Sooryavanshi with AFL legend Scott Pendlebury, who became the league’s most-capped player with 433 matches last week. He pointed out that while the two are at completely different stages of their careers, both are dominating their respective sports in their own way.
