Vaibhav batted for 100 overs each day: Coach Manish Ojha

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s breathtaking pyrotechnics in the last two editions of the IPL might have left everyone awestruck, but creating the muscle memory for his wide range took six years of gruelling work. According to his childhood coach, Manish Ojha, the young batter practiced for eight hours daily, facing 100 overs.

World cricket’s most exciting batting sensation at 15 and half years has already received India call-up for the T20I tour of United Kingdom after a stupendous IPL season when he emerged as the top scorer with 776 runs at a eye-popping strike-rate of 237 plus.

Ojha, who trained Sooryavanshi from the age of eight at his academy in Patna, spoke to PTI about the hard work put in by his ward and the sacrifices made by his parents Sanjeev and Aarti. He also revealed how parents are now flocking to academies with kids as young as five, with an aim to turn their off-springs into ‘Next Vaibhav’.

But it is easier said than done, Ojha maintained.

So once Sooryavanshi switched from tennis to hardball, how many balls would he face on an average since age 10? Ojha’s answer would blow away everyone.

“See, we don’t count the balls, how many balls he played, but I will give you a minimum estimate, that he played more than 600 balls,” Ojha told PTI during an exclusive interview.