Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag lavished praise on Vaibhav Suryavanshi after Rajasthan Royals thumped Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati on Monday. 

Suryavanshi scored 52 runs off just 17 balls with the help of four fours and five maximums as he scored his runs at a strike rate of 305.88 in the run-chase of 128. The prodigy batter completed his fifty off just 15 balls, which is the joint third-fastest in the IPL along with Sunil Narine, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Nicholas Pooran.

Suryavanshi was able to hit the ground running as he smashed a four and a six on the first two balls he faced.

Parag said he has told the youngster that the franchise would back him to the hilt throughout the season.

The RR captain said in the presser, “What I tell him is that you’re going to play 14 games and regardless of what goes on in the game, it shouldn’t bother you. What goes around in the media shouldn’t bother you. You just go out there. He loves to bat. I’ve made sure I’ve told the coaches that he gets as much batting as he wants.”

“And he goes and does some things like that. So I think me and Dhruv, when we were sitting there till the fourth over, we were just in awe. Like, what is happening? Like, how is he doing this? But then I’m really happy to have him in my team.”

Parag lauded the collective bowling effort after CSK was skittled out for 127 runs on a tricky pitch.

He concluded, “Everyone who came in, Jof and Nandre, we expect that from them every single time, they were rapid. Sandy bhaiya doing his job. Jaddu bhaiya coming in, I think Guwahati suited him a little bit more. And then Brijesh, the youngster, I think him coming in first game against CSK with the packed crowd, what he did was insane, so I’m really looking forward to the season.

Rajasthan Royals will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Saturday.