|| India Correspondent ||

Former Indian player Virender Sehwag heaped praise on the young pace bowler of Rajasthan Royals - Chetan Sakariya who took the limelight away from others on Sunday with his superb bowling against Punjab Kings in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

The 22-year-old left-arm pacer was the pick of the Rajasthan bowlers who finished with the figures of 3/31 on his debut in the cash-rich league. He gave the first breakthrough to his team in the third over when he cleaned up Mayank Agarwal (12) and he again then returned in the final over to dismiss KL Rahul (91) and Jhye Richardson (0) as well.

His brilliant performance impressed everyone, including the batting great Sehwag as the former cricketer applauded the young seamer's fearless approach and he compared his temperament with former India left-arm seamers Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra as well.

“I’ve heard his name, even saw him bowl in domestic games but didn’t expect that he would bowl so well. You face different batters in the domestic circuit but in IPL, you come across big and renowned batsmen. We got to see his temperament. He was fearless,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.

“Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra always say that as a bowler, you should never be scared of getting hit for a boundary. Until you won’t get hit, you cannot learn and pick wickets. So, I think, he [Sakariya] exhibited that kind of temperament. He had variations as well. Though there were a few no-balls but overall, he bowled very well. The way he got Mayank Agarwal and surprised Chris Gayle with one of his deliveries, he was completely impressive,” he further added.