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Former England cricketer and commentator Mark Butcher has stated that the young Indian batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has the shades of former West Indies batter Sir Garry Sobers with similar bat swing, timing, and bat-ball contact.
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Speaking exclusively to Wisden Cricket, the former cricketer also went on to add that the 14-year-old young Indian U19 batter has similar hand speed and footwork to the former explosive Caribbean cricketer Sobers, who excelled in all aspects of the game during his playing days.
"The first thing flashing in my head was Garry Sobers. The violence in the bat swing, timing and purity of the contact. The hand speed, the way that he uses his legs in the ground, the way the bat literally follows through all the way around until it slaps in the middle of his back. was pure Sobers,” Mark Butcher told Wisden Cricket.
"I would urge people from a different generation, who don't have that picture of Sir Gary in their minds eye to seek out the video of him hitting six sixes off Malcolm Nash at Swansea and just watch. I swear to God it looks exactly the same. It's just astonishing to watch in terms of the way he uses his legs to drive the bat swing and the way the bat swing just keeps going until it disappears and slaps him in the middle of his spine. It's just pure Sobers," he added.
Notably, Sooryavanshi ended the successful ICC U19 World Cup 2026 campaign as the second-leading run-scorer, amassing 439 runs from seven innings at an average of 62.71 and a strike rate of 169.49 with a century and three half-centuries.
He grabbed the spotlight after scoring a six off the first ball on his IPL debut for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2025 season. He went on to conclude the season with 252 runs from seven innings with a century and a half-century.
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