Virat Kohli's Childhood Coach Bats For Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's India Debut vs Ireland: 'Really Happy For Him...'

India vs Ireland: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has all the spotlight on him and while speculations are rife over whether he will make his national debut on Friday at Belfast or not, Virat Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma has wished the teen sensation all the best and reckoned he truly deserves it. Sooryavanshi has been the talk of the cricketing world over the past few months, all thanks to his mind-blowing abilities with the bat. 

ALSO READ: WATCH | Kishan Giving Tips to Sooryavanshi Ahead of Likely IND Debut

‘Really happy for him’

“It’s a magnificent achievement, I’d say, for Vaibhav. He possesses exceptional talent; he’s shown it by the way he’s taken on all the world’s best bowlers. So, he truly deserves this debut, and I’m looking forward to it. I wish him all the best for his debut and am really happy for him," Rajkumar Sharma said.

Rajkumar, who is a veteran coach, admitted that Sooryavanshi's success has inspired many parents to send their kids for training. 

“Yes, definitely, very young kids have started coming, and their parents want to enrol them. For example, someone brought a 5-year-old kid to me, and I said, ‘No, he’s still very young, let him play for now, you play with him, and enrol him in coaching when he turns 8.’ They asked, ‘If we enrol him at 8, how will he become like Vaibhav Suryavanshi?’ So, people’s expectations have certainly risen because a youngster has done so well. But such players are born only once in a generation," he said.

India's Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma/Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav

India go in as clear favourites, having won all eight T20Is against Ireland. Their last meeting was at the 2024 T20 World Cup in New York.