CHENNAI: Vijay Nigam, a primary teacher with a government school in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, always wanted his only child, Vipraj, to become a cricketer. Posting in a remote area, however, was the biggest hurdle depriving his son of a good training facility. Based out of Haidergarh tehsil, Vijay already was travelling around 30-35km to reach his workplace. He decided to double the distance by shifting his base to Barabanki district headquarters with the sole intention of providing Vipraj, then around eight years old, a proper cricket training.
All the hard work put in by the family and Vipraj himself bore fruits as the latter caught everybody's attention on Monday night. He played a match-changing innings of 39 runs, which came off just 15 balls, on his IPL debut for Delhi Capitals against Lucknow Super Giants in Visakhapatnam after picking up a wicket earlier in the match.
Vipraj might have been dismissed earlier than he would have liked but the Uttar Pradesh all-rounder had given much-needed momentum to the innings, laying a platform for the destructive Ashutosh Sharma to guide the team home with his blistering unbeaten knock of 66 from 31 balls.
"He has this habit of grabbing an opportunity with both hands," Sarwar Nawab, Vipraj's coach, told this daily. Adding further, he said, "Be it the U14 or U19 trial matches, he always performs either with the bat or with the ball to grab eyeballs. Even in his debut Ranji match against Bengal last year, he claimed four wickets in the first innings including of Wriddhiman Saha and two in the second essay with his leg break bowling."
The 2024-25 season turned out to be a breakout year for the 20-year-old right-handed batter as he made his senior debut for the state in all formats. But it was his stint with Lucknow Falcons in the UP T20 League, where he picked up the wickets in bulks, earned him an IPL contract when the Delhi franchise picked him up for his base price of Rs 50 lakh.
"He performed well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy. He was very good in the Ranji Trophy. His show in the UP T20 League was exceptional as well. If you perform, you will catch the attention and he did that. He is always full of confidence and that has been his trait since the beginning. For the IPL, we made sure he practises at least for two to two-and-half-hour everyday. The camp with the DC players in Dubai also played a role as he got to rub shoulders with some big names. It obviously gives you a lot of confidence," said the coach.
But all has not been hunky-dory for Vipraj as there was a time when he was ignored by the UP selectors for the One-Day team. "I always tell my wards that rejection is a part and parcel of the game. The selection is not in their hands. It's the prerogative of the selectors. Their job is to perform and keep banging on the doors. Vipraj never shies away from hard work. He knows what he has to do to stake his claim. And whenever he got an opportunity, be it in the red ball of white ball cricket, he proved his worth."
The 55-run partnership off just 22 balls between Vipraj and Ashutosh brought Delhi back in the game and the Axar Patel-led side didn't let the opportunity slip out of their hands. The coach firmly believes it's just the beginning. "The fight now is to maintain that standard as expectations will be huge from him now onwards. He has done that in the past and I am quite sure he will keep doing it," signed off the coach.
