The Indian player in the Under-19 category, Vihaan Malhotra, is going to take part in the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) camp, the tournament champions, after the ICC U19 World Cup 2026. But even before the grand ICC event, his coach has disclosed the player’s inspiration, whom he has been following since childhood.
RCB’s New Signing Vihaan Malhotra Looked Up to Yuvraj Singh
Ricky, the player’s coach, who was the leading run-getter of the inaugural Under-19 World Cup in 2000, had been one of the players in the dressing room along with Yuvraj Singh, one of India’s legendary all-rounders. He affirmed that since Vihaan is a left-handed player, he got a lot of inspiration from Yuvraj and tried to copy his way of playing.
RCB is one of the six teams where Yuvraj played during his 11-year-long IPL career. He scored 376 runs with three fifties and took five wickets for Bangalore in 14 games during IPL 2014.
“I was a batchmate of Yuvraj and played the 2000 U19 World Cup with him. Vihaan has always admired Yuvraj and wanted to play like him,” stressed Ricky to RevSportz.
However, the India U19’s No.3 batter will miss the three-match Youth ODI series against South Africa U19, which is to take place before the World Cup, due to the fact that he is still recovering. But the coach is optimistic that the vice-captain will be fit to play in the big 50-over tournament starting January 15.
“He is at the CoE for rehab, and I don’t see it as serious. Vihaan himself says he’s perfectly fine, so I believe he’ll recover fully,” he added.
Vihaan Malhotra Might Be An Excellent Future Investment for RCB
The young 19-year-old player recently made a huge contribution by hitting an unbeaten 61 runs which helped India to win the U19 Asia Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka. In the tournament, he scored a total of 165 runs and had two fifty-plus scores. Before that, he made 243 runs in a five 50-over matches and 277 runs in a two-match red-ball series, thus, the batter showed a great form during their tour of England.
Vihaan also made a total of 119 runs in the Australia YODIs, hitting 15 boundaries and one six in three matches, thus, becoming the fourth-highest run-getter of the series. The INR 30 lakh signing, who is also capable of bowling as a right-arm offbreak, could be a very good future investment for the franchise ahead of IPL 2026.
Comments are closed.