KL Rahul calls this Lucknow player "Baby AB"

Fans witnessed a cracker of a contest on Monday as Gujarat beat Lucknow by five wickets. It was a really close game but at the end, the Hardik Pandya-led side emerged victorious. They managed to chase 159 with two balls to spare.

However, prior to that, they had Lucknow 29-4 as Mohammed Shami was absolutely sensational during the powerplay overs. While everybody were expecting Gujarat to bundle Lucknow rather cheaply, Ayush Badoni had other plans. The youngsters joined forces with Deepak Hooda to ensure that Lucknow get to a respectable total.

Badoni scored a brilliant 54 from 41 deliveries. This managed to impress several pundits and experts. Even his skipper KL Rahul had heaps of praises for him during the post-match presentation. The Lucknow captain said that Badoni was the "Baby AB de Villiers" for them.

"He's (Badoni) baby AB for us. He has been phenomenal from the first day. For a little boy, he packs a punch and plays 360 degrees, so happy for him as he grabbed the opportunity. It was not ideal for him to walk out with us four down but he did well under pressure and hopefully, he can continue doing that," said KL Rahul.

In the meanwhile, the opener also drew light on the match. He stated that the middle-order batter stepping up like how they did during the game gives them a lot of confidence. Hence, he was satisfied with their start to the Indian T20 league 2022.

"It was a phenomenal game. What a way to start the campaign. Starting off like that with the bat was not ideal but the way we recovered was phenomenal. It gives us so much confidence when the batters in the middle and lower order can do the job. We know with the Wankhede the ball can do a bit at the start and if we can get through that it will be ideal. We couldn't have started the campaign in any better way," he added.