IND-A tri-series | Kanitkar sir gave me a free hand to play freely: Sooryavanshi

A couple of days before the tri-nation series final, as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi walked out of the nets after a long and gruelling batting session under the scorching sun, a handful of local fans gathered around him, hoping to click pictures.

The teenager obliged to most requests, but the demands kept growing. One picture led to two, two led to three, and so on…

It reached a point where Sooryavanshi had to rush to catch the team bus as the India-A team was leaving the Rangiri International Stadium premises.

As the local security staff eventually escorted him away, one of them joked: “Let him score first… give him some time.”

The runs weren’t flowing for the young southpaw yet. Coming on the back of a remarkable IPL season, where he won the Orange Cap, Sooryavanshi couldn’t convert his starts in the tri-nation series. The pressure, naturally, was mounting.

Hearing the remark, he smiled and quietly boarded the team bus. Who would have thought that the 15-year-old was saving his best for the last?

In the final against Sri Lanka-A on Sunday, Sooryavanshi’s modus operandi was simple: miss your line or length and I’ll make you pay.

“There was no pressure on me,” Sooryavanshi said. “The idea was to execute what I had planned for in the first 10 overs and then take it forward. That was the plan and it worked.”

When runs weren’t coming, he consulted India-A coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar to sort things out.

“The conditions were challenging here, and I was not able to execute my plans in the last few games. But I could address that with the guidance of the coaches. So, it was about going out there and executing the plans,” he added.

“I sat down with Hrishi sir to discuss a few things and he gave me a free hand to play freely,” Sooryavanshi told The Hindu.

Having worked with him since the under-19 days, Sooryavanshi knew that Kanitkar’s advice would be crucial.

“Even when I struggled, he told me that, ‘tu apna natural game khel, zyada soch mat’ (you play your natural game and don’t think too much about anything else). That motivated me and I continued to back myself… I’m happy that things worked out well.”

While a record-breaking innings will forever remain special, he doesn’t want to think too much about the missed hundred (94, 29b, 10×4, 8×6) in the final.

As he leaves for Ireland and England with the Indian senior men’s team, Sooryavanshi will start afresh with a lot of confidence.

“Many people don’t know, but I have played some One-dayers… so it was good to take on the bowlers today,” he said with a smile, after being adjudged the Player-of-the-Match.