Hanuma Vihari: Everything you need to know about India’s latest Test debutant

Alastair Cook was in the limelight before the start of the 5th Test match between India and England as he is set to retire from Test cricket after this Test. But there was one more cricketer who was making the headlines during the same time. Hanuma Vihari was awarded the India cap as he became the 292nd player to represent India in Test cricket.

VIDEO: Watch @Hanumavihari receive his Test cap from #TeamIndia captain @imVkohli ??
Link —> https://t.co/f7XaxeiAzc pic.twitter.com/AAu0UPqg8g

— BCCI (@BCCI) September 7, 2018

The Andhra batsman is in a terrific form in first-class cricket and his consistent scores for India A in the recent games earned him the Test cap. But unlike other Indian young cricketers, Vihari has hardly been in the limelight as he doesn’t feature in the IPL and doesn’t have a happening social media life.

So here we bring some important facts about Vihari which talk about the person he is and his journey as a cricketer so far.

• Birth Date- 13/10/1993 in Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.
• U-19 team- Was part of the India U-19 team that won the U-19 world cup in Australia in 2012. But Vihari had a poor outing as he scored only 71 runs at an average of 11.83.
• But before making an appearance in the U-19 team, Vihari stormed into the Ranji team of Hyderabad at the age of just 17 years in 2010.
• Three years later, Vihari was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the glamorous Indian Premier League. But a mediocre season meant he was released in 2014 but was once again bought by the same franchise in 2015. But since then he hasn’t featured in any IPL game so far.
• In his two seasons in IPL (2013 and 2015) Vihari has scored 280 runs and has one wicket to his name that too of IPL’s most destructive opener, Chris Gayle.
• He has remained prolific in Ranji trophy in the last few seasons. In 205/16 he amassed 626 while captaining the Hyderabad team and 688 runs in the next year while playing for Andhra Pradesh.
• In the previous season (2017/18) Vihari slammed 752 runs which earned him a place in the India A team.
• Playing for India A, Vihari has scored 2 centuries and 3 fifties in 11 innings in 2018. This has propelled his first-class average to 59.45 which is the highest among all current cricketers across the globe.