One man who delivered consistently and played as per the narrative was Hubli Tigers star Luvnith Sisodia, who not only kept fans entertained with his boundary hitting, but his range of strokes laced with reverse sweeps, scoops and laps elicited more than just the occasional ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the crowd.
A youngster gifted with the skill of clearing boundaries at will and threading gaps to perfection, Sisodia was at his dynamic best in the newly-branded Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 competition, where he plundered runs for fun and scored the most boundaries for a batsman in the league.
The dashing southpaw accounted for 389 runs from 11 matches at a terrific strike rate of 153.75, with three half-centuries to his name - including a 55-ball 96* against the Gulbarga Mystics.
While that knock really broke the shackles for Sisodia, a 40-ball 80 against Mangalore United at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium made everyone stand up and take notice of the abundant talent housed in the young left-hander.
One thing was clear as day - Luvnith was there to make a statement - and if anything, there wasn’t a shadow of doubt about why the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) think-tank had invested in his talent for the IPL 2022 season.
While Sisodia’s talent has received praise from pundits and fans alike, the youngster was quick to acknowledge the contributions of some of his coaches back home and the work put in by RCB’s support staff to help elevate his game to the next level.
Luvnith was roped in by RCB ahead of IPL 2022, but an unfortunate injury quashed the talented batsman’s hopes of making his debut for the Faf du Plessis-led side. Despite the injury, RCB took care of Luvnith’s recovery during the season and made him a part of the traveling squad - a decision that the youngster is forever grateful for.
“I love to deliver under pressure” - Luvnith Sisodia on challenges of captaincy and featuring in Karnataka’s XI
Sisodia’s purple patch stems from the Division-1 level matches that were held prior to the Maharaja Trophy, with the southpaw having smashed 512 runs in seven matches, comprising of four half-centuries and two centuries.
As one of Karnataka’s most promising cricket stars, Luvnith was handed the responsibility of captaining the Hubli Tigers in the Maharaja Trophy 2022, with regular captain Abhimanyu Mithun happy to polish the youngster’s outlook towards captaincy.
Sisodia, then the vice-captain of the Tigers for the tournament, was made skipper for the Tigers’ 7th match only days after plundering 96 runs off 50 balls against Gulbarga. He shed some light on how the added responsibility brought out the best in him for the remainder of the Maharaja Trophy 2022.
While there’s no question surrounding Luvnith’s jaw-dropping talent with the bat, he’s seldom got chances at the state level, having had to watch a lot of the action from the sidelines with Karnataka’s batting unit boasting of stars who have represented India at various levels.
Despite having to wait for his chances, Luvnith is keen to make the most of any chance he gets to perform, wherever he’s asked to bat and in any situation. Moreover, the youngster is eager to prove that he’s not a one-trick pony and can easily be one of the country’s best all-format players.
After what was a terrific Maharaja Trophy campaign for Sisodia, one thing’s for sure. When RCB invested in Luvnith’s talent ahead of IPL 2022, it was because they saw a potential superstar in the making. Over the past few months, Sisodia’s stocks have witnessed a meteoric rise in status, and that IPL debut could well come in 2023.
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