'It affects me a bit': Vaibhav Sooryavanshi opens up on criticism after duck vs SRH

Rajasthan Royals batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi said he wanted to answer his critics with his bat after his poor outing against Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer Praful Hinge in their earlier IPL meeting.

On his IPL debut, Hinge had taken four wickets and dismissed Sooryavanshi for a duck. The young batter failed to handle a short-of-a-length ball and edged it behind to wicketkeeper Salil Arora.

When the two teams met again on Saturday, Sooryavanshi came in with a clear plan. He attacked Hinge in the very first over and hit him for four consecutive sixes.

Later, he went on to score a century in just 36 balls. Although SRH won the match, his innings received praise from fans and experts.

In a video shared by Rajasthan Royals on social media, the 15-year-old said he was affected by some of the comments after his earlier dismissal and wanted to respond through his batting.

"I went with a clear plan against the bowler. After getting out in the last match, I went back and checked my phone. I saw a lot of things. I usually don't pay attention to those things, but when someone says something to me personally, it affects me a bit. I only wanted to answer with my bat," he said.

He said the innings came from following the same approach he had worked on in practice.

"You know how important it was for me. I was just trying to do exactly what I did in practice yesterday. I was playing with a free flow from the very first ball, and I planned to do the exact same thing today," he told RR manager Romi Bhinder.

During SRH’s chase, Sooryavanshi had to leave the field because of cramps. He later said he was feeling better and expected to be ready for Rajasthan Royals’ next match against Punjab Kings.

"It's fine now. I'm feeling better. I don't know, my foot got stuck. I already had an ankle problem, so to avoid putting too much force on it, I pulled my hamstring. But it's better now. I will recover in time for the next match."