Sunrisers Hyderabad's Aniket Verma in action during the IPL 2025 match against Lucknow Super Giants in Hyderabad on Thursday. (Sportzpics for IPL)His impending entry and debut on Thursday was announced as “AV launched” by Sunrisers Hyderabad. But Aniket Verma, the 22-year-old from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh was literally bringing up the rear for the most explosive batting lineup in the IPL, coming at No 6 behind Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen.
At 110/4 in the 12th over, with Head, Sharma, Kishan and Klaasen back in the hut, SRH had gotten conservative on their ambition of striking 300. But Verma, known for his fearless batting having scored 47 in a SRH practice match at over 200 SR, arrived at the crease, and smacked 5 sixes to help push the total to 190. He scored 36 off 13, striking at 256.
On Sunday against the Delhi Capitals, Verma showed his class once again, smashing 50 off just 34 deliveries with the help of 4 fours and 3 sixes.
Verma had played only 1 first class T20 in Madhya Pradesh’s Syed Mushtaq trophy before his IPL debut, but was a run machine in u23s.
The right-handed batter also bowls right-arm medium fast. He first came to prominence for MP u23 against Karnataka and also has centuries in longer format and at Buchi Babu invitational tournament in Chennai.
He regularly strikes at over 200 in Madhya Pradesh Premier League where his highest score is 123 off 41 balls, for Bhopal Leopards including 13 sixes. At Leopards, he was famous for the line that described him as, “Get up – arrive at ground – hit sixes for fun – go back – arrive for next match” On a loop.
Verma had scored the first and fastest century of the Madhya Pradesh Premier League in 32 balls, getting to the century with 3 consecutive sixes. He finished with 244 runs off 5 innings. He also had the fastest 50 of the league, and had told MPPL in a post match, “My coaches have told me to stick to my strengths. Play comfortably and extend stay. That’s it.”
SRH acquired him for a base price of Rs 30 lakh. And in an intra-squad match, he had struck 47 off just 16 balls.
He came good on Thursday after the big guns were quelled.
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