Online Reporter
ANY member of the Chevrons who are in Sri Lanka for the ICC T20 World Cup will celebrate if they get an IPL contract.
Well, it’s something that Leeroy Chiwaulaalready has.
He is on the books of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
If you wanted to understand the gulf in class between India and Zimbabwe, who clashed in an ICC Under-19 World Cup at Queens yesterday, then just take Vihaan as an example.
He scored a century yesterday and broke the back of Zimbabwe’s bowlers.
He used to shatter fans and tube lights of his home as well as mirrors in his mother Dr Poonam’s private clinic.
“Sometimes, he broke the fan or tube lights. Once, he broke the mirrors in his mother’s private clinic,” says his father Manoj.
The hundred reminded Punjab U-19 coach Ranveet Ricky of his former teammate Yuvraj Singh, especially the cover-driving; the father’s memory rolled back to the numerous evenings Vihaan waited for him when he returned home from work.
“He would be waiting for me to bowl in our drawing room. I would be tired and bowl sitting from the bed or couch,” he remembers.
The stylish left-hander’s life revolved around cricket.
During free time, he watched Virat Kohli’s videos.
“I am sure this hundred will remind him of how his idol had guided India to the title in 2008,” he says.
Seeing his interest in the game, and partly to stop the wreckage at home, they enrolled him at the Black Elephant Cricket Club before he joined Cricket Hub Patiala in 2019.
Coach Kamal Sidhu recalls the early tweaks he made to his game.
“We worked on rectifying his front foot going across as well as making his head still.
“He became confident playing vertical shots. As he grew, we worked on his bottom hand movement to add the horizontal shots.”
The hard work bore fruits.
Three years later, he amassed 978 runs at 81.50 in the Vijay Merchant Trophy.
The icing on the cake was a 230 against Mumbai.
“After the double hundred against Mumbai, the Mumbai coach took him to his team and told them how Vihaan scored a double hundred relying on ground shots,” says Ricky, one of the mainstays of the 2000 U-19 World Cup triumph.
Ricky also remembers a Vinoo Mankad Trophy match, where he shepherded the lower order against Chandigarh as he performed against Zimbabwe. “Punjab were 190 something for 9 with Vihaan closing in on his hundred in reply to Chandigarh’s first innings total of nearly 300.
“Vihaan scored 190 runs to take Punjab close to Chandigarh total. We won the match. As Vihaan remained unbeaten today, it reminded me of that match,” he says. – Sports Reporter/India Express
