Meet Suyash Sharma, 19-year-old wonderboy who wreaked havoc on RCB on IPL debut

Suyash Sharma (PIc: AFP)

Kolkata Knight Riders made a memorable homecoming with an 81-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday. If 'Lord' Shardul powered the Knights to a mammoth 204 with his 29-ball 68, it was 19-year-old Suyash Sharma who made a tremendous 'impact' in the second innings as an 'impact player' in place of Venkatesh Iyer. The long-haired mystery spinner scalped two crucial wickets in a single over to leave RCB reeling at 86 for eight.

Sharma claimed his maiden wicket with a tossed up delivery aimed at Anuj Rawat who was dismissed for one run and in space of just three balls, he bagged a prized-scalp of veteran Dinesh Karthik with a fuller delivery. The little known U-25 spinner hailing from Delhi, who played only white ball cricket at age-group level, before being snapped at the auction this year, formed a deadly combination with Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in KKR's comprehensive win against Bangalore.

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"Suyash is no mystery spinner," clarified Nitish Rana 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."

Playing in his debut match, Suyash looked unstirred in front of a capacity crowd of about 67,000. 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. He has a quick run-up, as batters looked tentative against the youngsters.

"He's also very quick through the air. You will be in trouble 100 per cent if there's a little bit of doubt while batting against him. He will improve game by game," Rana added.

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"I knew Suyash would do well but I wanted to bring in Sunil in the Powerplay and then Varun and both of them gave breakthroughs. It was very important to take wickets in the middle," he said about his ploy to employ Suyash in the back-end. "Varun comeback was very important for us. He didn't perform well last season, but he is bowling well this time," he also hailed Chakravarthy.

(With PTI inputs)