Vaibhav Sooryavanshi takes first-class captaincy role in Duleep Trophy semifinal

Teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi took charge as East Zone's stand-in captain after Ishan Kishan suffered a thumb injury during the Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone. Sooryavanshi, the side's vice-captain, also discussed his bowling exploits.

Bengaluru: Teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi got his first captaincy role in senior first-class cricket when he took over as the stand-in captain of the East Zone side for their Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone on Sunday.

Sooryavanshi, the incumbent vice-captain of the East side, donned the captain’s hat on Day 1 of the semifinal when regular skipper Ishan Kishan walked off the field. Kishan picked up a blow to his right thumb while keeping wickets during Central Zone’s batting innings.

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The East Zone skipper was replaced by Kumar Kushagara behind the stumps, while Sooryavanshi took over as the stand-in captain of the zonal side temporarily.

Sooryavanshi has been in focus in the Duleep Trophy. The teenage sensation scored only eight runs in the quarterfinal against North East Zone but had an enjoyable outing with the ball.

The teenage sensation discussed his switch of hats during the match and shared how he felt when bowling and taking two wickets in the second innings of the game, which his team won by an innings and 210 runs on Tuesday.

“If you ask any batter, they always enjoy bowling. A batter always enjoys bowling and a bowler always enjoys batting equally,” Sooryavanshi said in a video posted by BCCI Domestic.

Sooryavanshi, who was appointed vice-captain of the zonal side and deputy to Ishan Kishan, opened up about the skipper’s decision to bowl him and described himself as a “wicket-taker”.

“Opponent team’s wickets weren’t falling, so I was asked to bowl two or three overs. Ishan Bhaiya felt like he was taking a risk, but he didn’t know that I am a wicket-taker,” he added.

Coming back to the East Zone vs Central Zone semifinal, East invited the Rajat Patidar-led Central Zone to bat first after winning the toss. Saransh Jain returned for the Patidar-led team after the off-spin all-rounder made his India debut during the Colombo Test against Sri Lanka earlier this month.

East Zone kept a lid on the Central side in the first session on Day 1 as they kept them to 81/3 in the 32 overs bowled. Abhijit K Sarkar and Mukesh Kumar took two and one wicket, respectively, while Mohammed Shami had a fiery battle with Central captain Patidar.

Abhijit dismissed Aman Mokhade and Kunal Chandela in the first hour of the day, while India international Mukesh cleaned Patidar late in the second hour as East took control of the early proceedings.