Meet Vivrant Sharma, the Jammu & Kashmir all-rounder picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 2.6 crores
The IPL 2023 mini-auction, held in Kochi on Friday, December 23, was headlined by all-rounders as had been expected, with Sam Curran (INR 18.5 crores to Punjab Kings), Cameron Green (INR 17.50 crores to Mumbai Indians) and Ben Stokes (INR 16.25 crores to Chennai Super Kings) being the most expensive picks.
There was joy for the uncapped Indian talents too, with Jammu and Kashmir all-rounder Vivrant Sharma, bagging an INR 2.6 crores deal with the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Vivrant, who had his base price set at INR 20 Lakhs, attracted an opening bid from the two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders, before SRH joined the bidding war and eventually managed to acquire his services for a staggering 13 times the base price.
Vivrant would be the fourth player from Jammu and Kashmir to represent the Sunrisers, after Parvez Rasool, Abdul Samad and Umran Malik.
Who is Vivrant Sharma?
Vivrant Sharma, born on October 30, 1999 in Jammu, is an attacking left-handed opener with wrist-spin being his secondary suit. The 23-year-old grabbed attention with a sizzling 124-ball 154 against Uttarakhand at the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2022 earlier this season, which helped the side seal a quarter-final berth for the first time in the competition’s history.
Vivrant finished as the second-highest run-getter for his side at the tournament, aggregating 395 runs at 56.42 and an impressive strike-rate of 94.72 with a hundred and two fifties from eight innings. He also bagged five wickets with a best of 4/22.
Vivrant Sharma - The Impact Player, will have to save #SRH foreign batsmen against the left-arm spin threat.
— Gappa Cricket (@GappaCricket) December 23, 2022
If you bowl first, finish Bhuvi's 4 overs quickly & replace him.
If you bat first, replace him with Mayank/Tripathi once they get out.
This is why Markram should lead. pic.twitter.com/3u4xqlnP7D
Overall, Vivrant has aggregated 519 runs at 39.92 and has bagged eight wickets from 14 List A matches since his debut last year. He has scored 191 runs at a strike-rate of 128.18 with two fifties from the eight T20s he’s played till date.
He recently made his first-class debut, in the Jammu and Kashmir’s opening match at the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2022-23 against Madhya Pradesh, but could manage just 34 and a first-ball duck, and returned 1/22 from seven overs in the side’s innings and 17-run defeat. He followed that up with 1 and a 41 in the recent outing against Gujarat, which Jammu and Kashmir lost by nine wickets.
The youngster would join a host of international stalwarts in the SRH camp, including the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Aiden Markram, Mayank Agarwal, Adil Rashid and Harry Brook among others.
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