Debutant spinner Suyash Sharma hogged all the limelight after Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday. The 19-year-old only played white ball cricket at age grop level, before being snapped at the auction this year. He formed a deadly combination with Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in KKR's comprehensive win. Suyash returned figures of 3/30 as RCB were blow away by KKR's spin trio.
Sporting a head band to keep his flowing mane in check, Suyash has some uncanny resemblance with Indian Olympic gold medal winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, which didn't go unnoticed by fans.
Here's how Twitter reacted:
Playing in front of a capacity crowd of about 67,000 at the Eden Gardens, Suyash looked confident.
KKR skipper Nitish Rana played down talks of the youngster being a "mystery spinner" as he termed him as a normal leg-break bowler but with 'x-factor'.
"Suyash is no mystery spinner," the KKR skipper clarified at the post-match media interaction. "He is a normal leg-spinner. But he has an x-factor because of his very high arm speed with an orthodox action, so it's very difficult pick him." Included as 'Impact Player' in place of Venkatesh Iyer, Suyash grabbed 3/30 as KKR spin trio grabbed nine wickets among them to shoot out RCB for 123 in 17.4 overs in their big chase of 205.
(With PTI Inputs)