Christchurch [New Zealand], October 21 (ANI): New Zealand have studied India’s teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi ahead of the five-match T20I series and are confident that home conditions will test the 15-year-old, Kiwi pacer Jacob Duffy said on Tuesday.
Sooryavanshi has taken world cricket by storm with his explosive batting, rewriting records in the Indian Premier League (IPL) before becoming the youngest player to represent India in men’s international cricket during the T20I series in England in July. Now, a part of India’s T20I team which will play a five-match T20I series in New Zealand, Sooryavanshi will be tested by the pace and bounce.
“First of all, he’s an incredible talent. Obviously, he’s taken the IPL by storm and what’s amazing, he strikes it so hard but he does it so consistently,” Duffy told reporters, as per Reuters.
“He’s striking at 250 (strike-rate) every game and he’s not missing out very often. So that’s incredible in itself. I think he played in England, so conditions will be a little bit different for him, so that’s obviously one thing for him to be challenged with. We’ve certainly had a good scouting session on him and got our plans as to what we want to do to him,” Duffy added.
After a relatively quiet start against England, Sooryavanshi announced himself on the international stage by becoming the youngest player to score a half-century in men’s international cricket, smashing an 18-ball fifty against Zimbabwe.
He was also part of India’s gold medal-winning campaign at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, where the team clinched the men’s T20 cricket title.
The opening T20I of the five-match series will be played at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Thursday, with India’s batters expected to face a different challenge on New Zealand’s traditionally seam-friendly pitches.
Duffy said he had spoken to Hagley Oval’s head groundsman about the surface and was hoping for conditions that would assist the bowlers.
“He’s from Invercargill, so he’s promised me a little bit of bounce,” said Duffy, who was born in Lumsden on New Zealand’s South Island.
“As long as it’s not Hyderabad, I’m happy,” Duffy added, as per Reuters.
The T20I series will be the first leg of India’s tour of New Zealand, which also includes five one-day internationals and two Tests. India last toured the country in November 2022 for three ODIs and three T20Is.
Duffy, who won the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal as New Zealand’s top player in 2025, has enjoyed a productive year, reaching the final of the T20 World Cup in India before winning the IPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
The 31-year-old made his Test debut last year and is eager to strengthen his case for a place in New Zealand’s red-ball side ahead of a four-Test tour of Australia.
“I’ve played four tests in my life. I get up for any test. There’s something special about them,” he said, according to Reuters.
Duffy missed New Zealand’s mid-year tour of England and the one-off Test against Ireland to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. (ANI)
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