England wicketkeeper-batter Jos Buttler made a huge prediction about 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, comparing his bat swing to that of legends Brian Lara and Yuvraj Singh.Buttler had the best seat in the house when Suryavanshi smoked a 35-ball 100, including eleven sixes, against Gujarat Titans at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.Speaking on For the Love of Cricket, his new podcast with Stuart Broad, Buttler said: “He has this amazing bat swing, a bit like — it’s a huge statement — Yuvraj Singh slash Brian Lara.”
Stuart Broad recalled the IPL auction, when Rajasthan Royals picked the 14-year-old. He said: “When I was watching the auction, Rajasthan Royals picked up a 14-year-old kid. And I think everyone around the world was like, what? 14? It’s proper adult cricket, this. But you ended up being — you were keeping, weren’t you? — when he scored that incredible IPL 100. Talk us through that because it made news worldwide.”Reminiscing Suryavanshi’s knock against GT, Buttler said: “It’s inspiring and deflating at the same time. This guy’s 20 years younger than me and he’s just smashing us all around the park. But yeah, absolutely — shockwaves throughout the cricket world.“I think a 14-year-old guy getting picked up — that was the story, wasn’t it? He was in the auction, the youngest, and Jimmy (James Anderson) being the oldest — the age difference. But yeah, he played… he actually hit his first ball for six in the IPL.“He played two or three games, I think, before he played against us. So, the first ball he ever faced in the IPL — he sort of gave himself a bit of room and smacked it over wide long-off for six. And whether… I don’t know, we have to try and get him on the pod and ask him — how long before that happened did you think, I’m going to try and hit my first ball for six? Because it was premeditated. It wasn’t just there.”“And then, the innings against us — you know, our bowling attack consists of Mohammed Siraj, a brilliant international bowler, Prasidh Krishna, an international bowler, Rashid Khan, the best T20 bowler — and he just… the scale of the sixes. They weren’t just clearing the boundary — they were big sixes. I mean, you’re literally a yard from him. Big sixes. And a 35-ball 100 — it was outrageous.“And he actually played an innings a couple of games later against Chennai. I was watching on TV. And, you know, Chennai have Ravi Ashwin, Jadeja — proper seasoned pros. And he was like, bang, hit them out into the sand. And then sort of, you know, knocked one out to cover, like, I’m so in control, I’ll just take one now, trot down to the other end. And at that moment, I’m like — this guy’s the best player I’ve ever seen. Like, I’m so blown away.““But the 100 was incredible, right? He went for every ball. It was like, no fear. Whereas that next knock, it was like — a seasoned pro, just taking down great bowlers, hitting a six when he wanted, getting off strike when he wanted. It was in a run chase as well. So, he was calm. And the swing of the bat is beautiful.”
