Former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan has showered praise on Vaibhav Suryavanshi after Rajasthan Royals registered a 47-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad at New Chandigarh on Wednesday. Khan said Rajasthan Royals are already dependent on Suryavanshi in the ongoing season.

The youngster scored a magnificent knock of 97 runs off just 29 balls with the help of five fours and a dozen sixes against SRH as he batted at the top of his game.

The left-hander scored his runs at a blistering strike rate of 334.48 as he took SRH bowlers to the cleaners. Vaibhav also broke Chris Gayle’s record of most sixes (59) in an IPL season and now has 65 maximums to his name.

Khan said on Cricbuzz, “It’s just his second season, and the team is already so dependent on him. Everyone plans for him first when they look at RR. He is building a reputation where, if he stays for any length of time, he is going to do damage. Had he got to a hundred, he would have been in the fastest hundreds list thrice, which is phenomenal.”

“He has already made it a habit of creating such numbers when he is in. It’s hard to achieve this kind of consistency at this strike rate. He has the mental make-up to achieve these. If he continues on this path, you are going to see a lot of achievements from this kid. He is also coming up with answers for the different strategies teams try for him.”

On the other hand, the former left-arm pacer added that SRH’s middle order was exposed early when they lost four wickets in the Powerplay overs. 

“Their middle order got exposed early. Every time that’s happened, there has been pressure, and things have not gone their way. Ishan and Klaasen were dependent on the start they were getting from Abhishek and Head. Once that was not the case, it became an uphill task. Kishan played a good knock, but he had to sustain it for SRH to have a chance,” said Zaheer (via the aforementioned source).

RR will take on GT in the second qualifier on Friday.