{"id":556067,"date":"2026-04-29T01:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T01:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/556067\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T01:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T01:42:16","slug":"sooryavanshi-is-supernatural-pakistani-commentator-hits-back-at-indian-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/556067\/","title":{"rendered":"Sooryavanshi is supernatural: Pakistani commentator hits back at Indian media"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a barrage of bouncers from the Indian media following his comments on IPL teen sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Pakistani cricket commentator Nauman Niaz has responded with a Tendulkar-esque straight drive.<\/p>\n

Bewildered by the 15-year-old Indian batting prodigy\u2019s freakish exploits in the Indian Premier League, Niaz made a lighthearted comment during a recent podcast that Sooryavanshi \u201cneeds to be checked in a lab if he has got some AI chip in him\u201d.<\/p>\n

Niaz, a doctor by profession who follows cricket with a passion, went on to shower high praise on Sooryavanshi during the same podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a player, he is unreal,\u201d Niaz said, before dissecting every aspect of the youngster\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have analysed this because your body\u2019s shape fully develops when you are 18. And this boy is just 16 (15) now. When he was born, Virat Kohli was already a world champion (2011),\u201d he said, adding context.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo why is this boy so special? He doesn\u2019t have great strength, but his technique is so good, his wrist position is excellent, and so is the batting arc, with a full 360-degree swing of the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a technical standpoint, it was nothing but very high praise from a Pakistani expert for one of the biggest talents to have emerged from India in recent years.<\/p>\n

The AI chip reference added a touch of humour\u2014clearly born out of amazement at an outrageously talented player.<\/p>\n

But the Indian media not only failed to see the humour, it also ignored the genuine praise while criticising him for the podcast.<\/p>\n

Currently in the UK, the veteran cricket broadcaster was at a loss for words when asked how he found himself in the eye of a storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been given a negative spin, which is completely unwarranted,\u201d Niaz told Khaleej Times over the phone from London.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rather flabbergasting because I have followed (Vaibhav) from the Under-19s and now in the Indian Premier League. I personally feel that he is exceptional, and his exponential rise is because of the miraculous talent he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hailing Sooryavanshi as a \u2018boy wonder\u2019, Niaz said the Rajasthan Royals opener\u2019s free-flowing stroke play could even become a case study for health professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a clinician, I can easily tell you that you are not fully developed at 15. He is just a teenager\u2014his muscles, biceps and triceps still need to develop, and his shoulders need to take shape. But then, how is he hitting sixes so disdainfully? That\u2019s because he has a very strong base,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, I was one of the first to put out a thread on X about him, focusing on his batting components, since I hold a Master\u2019s in biomechanics and kinesiology. I feel he has tremendous hand-eye coordination. His head gaze angle is amazing; when he is facing, he remains still in his stance. And the best part is that he completes the arc of the bat and, whenever he gets an opportunity, he just hits the ball. He hardly respects the bowlers when he smashes them\u2014that\u2019s the best part of his cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niaz reiterated that the Indian media had taken his AI comment completely out of context.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe comment that I made was out of amazement, because he is almost supernatural in the way he bats,\u201d Niaz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a cricket fan, it\u2019s like living a dream to see a 16-year-old playing against the big boys, so I made the reference that maybe he is AI. That\u2019s how I was praising him, because he is so far ahead of his contemporaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I am just disappointed with the way the Indian media has put a completely wrong connotation on it. I\u2019m the last person who believes in conspiracy theories, yet they wrote that I gave over-the-top, exaggerated comments. That\u2019s quite ridiculous. I always base my points on evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rituraj<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a barrage of bouncers from the Indian media following his comments on IPL teen sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-556067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}