Fifteen-year-old Indian batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi said that his familiarity with Harare and the backing of the Indian team management helped him do well, after he smashed a match-winning 81 and swept the individual honours. Sooryavanshi, who scored 50, 20 and 81 in the three-match series, was named both Player of the Match and Player of the Series after the third and final T20I as well.

“Yes, it’s truly a dream come true moment. Getting my first Man of the Match and Man of the Series awards, I’m very happy,” Vaibhav Sooryavanshi said after the match. “It felt really good. Our preparation was very good during the two or three days after we arrived in Harare. I also played the Under-19 World Cup here, so I really enjoy playing at this venue. Everyone backed me – the captain, the coaches, everyone – so I’m very happy.”

“My game is the same as what I play in T20 cricket. I was just trying to do that for the team. In all three matches, I tried to give the team a good start. If I got a good start, then I wanted to make the innings bigger. That was my only approach,” he again said.

Despite his swashbuckling knocks, Sooryavanshi said that there was no secret behind his strokeplay as well.

“The shots that I play are the same ones I practise. I just try to replicate in the match whatever I do in the practice sessions,” he said.

VVS Laxman, India’s stand-in coach, said that Sooryavanshi’s match-winning knock in Harare was another sign of the teenager’s rapid growth, lauding not just his shot-making but the maturity he showed in adapting to a slower surface as well.

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“He’s very mature. And that’s what I really appreciate about Vaibhav,” Laxman said. “With each and every experience, each and every match, he understands, he assesses and he gets better. So I think he does a lot of review of each and every practise session. Not only match. So today what you saw was mature innings. Because it was a used wicket, the wicket which we played the match on yesterday. So the ball was stopping and coming, the wicket was slow. And I thought today the Zimbabweans bowled well, had a plan to him and he countered that plan. And it was a very, very mature knock from Vaibhav.”

“At the age of 14 or 15, when you’re playing an IPL match, either you can be overawed bythe big occasion or absorb and embrace the pressure.And I think he’s taken the second option where he embraced the pressure.So I’m not at all surprised the way this series has gone,” Laxman said. “He was disappointed not to get 100.But we mentioned to him that it’s not going to be the first time or the last time he’llget an opportunity to score 100.He’s got a long career. And he’s got the attitude and the mindset to get better each and every day.And I’m sure that he will just progress and break all the records at the internationallevel.He’s got all the potential and the ability to do that.”

VVS Laxman, however, said Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s development was far from complete, identifying fitness as the next major area of focus as well.

“One of the areas which we want him to get better and work on is his overall fitness,” Laxman said. “We have to also remember that he’s just 15 years old.He’s a very young boy.And he himself wants to get better in every aspect of the game. And if you see it, even today’s game, he was taking the hot spot.Even though he got injured, he still wanted to be on the field.But it was our physio who actually asked him to come out. So that’s the eagerness and the earnestness he has to do and contribute in every possible way to the team,” he added.

Meanwhile, India captain Shreyas Iyer credited the young team’s fearless approach after a dire tour of the UK.

“As we saw how fearless they are, they are a young bunch of players who have been showing tremendous energy on the field and the intent, especially when you play back-to-back games. To have such kind of energy is what I require as a captain and as a team, and they could deliver today as well,” Iyer said. “So every time I step onto the field, I see to it that how I can make sure that they are comfortable and relaxed because that’s when you can get the best out of them.”