LSG prodigy Ayush Badoni played two fine knocks in his debut season but his franchise mentor Gautam Gambhir feels that he is still far from being a superstar.
Follow Us
LSG prodigy Ayush Badoni has grabbed headlines with his two brilliant knocks in the IPL 2022. The Delhi-batter notched up a quick fire knock of 41-ball 54, laced with four boundaries and three hits over the fence, in his maiden IPL innings against GT and later on Thursday carried on the momentum against CSK to remain unbeaten on 19 runs off nine deliveries.
His fine displays has already made him one of the contenders for the rising star in IPL for this season but his franchise mentor Gautam Gambhir thinks otherwise. The 2011 World Cup winning-opener said that it is still early days for us and he needs to maintain his form to acquire a superstar status.
“Too early to talk too much about him because one innings doesn’t make you a superstar,” Gambhir told the official broadcasters on Thursday.
“Yes, he’s got loads of talent and that’s why he’s sitting in this dressing room. We did identify his talent. We’ve seen him for a long time as he comes from Delhi. The most important thing for him is to stay balanced and for us also to keep him balanced,” the former opener added.
READ MORE: IPL 2022 MS Dhoni-Gautam Gambhir: A ‘no-love lost’ saga
Badoni, 22, has grown in confidence after his initial outings. He highlighted that he often seeks lessons from Gambhir to improve his game further and it has helped him a lot.
“Gautam bhaiya backed me a lot. He told me to play just my natural game. He told me you won’t get the one-odd match, but you will get a proper run. He also told me, ‘you don’t need to play according to the situation. There are senior players to do that. You show us your natural game’,” said Badoni.
LSG captain KL Rahul and the management has shown immense faith in him. So much so that Rahul has nicknamed him ‘Baby de Villiers’ for his ability to hit the ball 360 degrees around the ground just like South Africa great AB de Villiers.
