Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has found a new admirer in former Australia batsman Greg Chappell. Chappell, who also coached India in the noughties, is a well-respected batting expert, and his praising Sooryavanshi is no ordinary thing. It lends a lot of weight to what former Indian players like Sachin Tendulkar, Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar have already said about the teenage star.
Describing Sooryavanshi’s extraordinary talent, Chappell, in his column for ESPNcricinfo, wrote: “When studying Sooryavanshi in full flight, one is immediately struck by a technical purity that elevates his work above the crude, muscle-bound power-hitting of the modern era. His clean, uninhibited bat swing possesses an organic symmetry that evokes cricket’s finest aestheticians.
“In his elegant downswing and flawless balance, there are distinct echoes of the great Graeme Pollock and the incomparable Sir Garfield Sobers. When he slashes across the line or lofts over extra cover, one glimpses the ferocious, instinctive genius of Brian Lara, combined with the devastating, ball-one intent of Adam Gilchrist. It is a classic, pure method being deployed with contemporary violence, proving that his talent is a rare gift to the game.”
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Chappell mentioning Pollock, Sobers, Lara and Gilchrist to describe Sooryavanshi says it all. While the 77-year-old is in awe of the 15-year-old batsman from Bihar — also the youngest in the world to score a century in List A cricket — he is worried that cricket is heading in the wrong direction with batsmen enjoying unprecedented dominance over bowlers.
Chappell is also not sure if today’s T20 batting is an evolution or if it’s something being facilitated, not natural. Chappell also criticised the Impact Player rule in the Indian Premier League, which often gives the batsmen in the Playing XI extra freedom to go after the ball right from the outset.
“As I watched this young left-hander take modern batting to a completely unheralded plane, a profound sense of unease accompanied the marvel. The central question we must now confront is clear: are we witnessing the magnificent evolution of T20 batting or are we presiding over the permanent evisceration of the contest between bat and ball?” he wrote.
Three-point solution from Chappell!
Chappell has come up with three suggestions that should help restore the balance between bat and ball. “The number of wickets a batting team is permitted to lose in a T20 innings should be reduced to six. Second, Administrators must mandate that a minimum of 3mm of live grass be left on all T20 pitches. Thirdly, I would recommend adjusting the lbw law so that any ball that is going on to hit the stumps, no matter where it pitches, is out.”
Chappell is of the opinion that by restricting the number of wickets, the batsmen will be more cautious, and it will result in restoring the balance. He reinforces his point by saying that if a bowler can only bowl four overs, the best batters of the team should also be restricted through the “six wickets” suggestion.