Gagan Vats powers to big ton after Virat Kohli's advice

Gagan Vats was one of those Delhi players who had the fortune of sharing the Delhi dressing room with Virat Kohli and picking his brains during the Ranji Trophy match against Railways at the Ferozeshah Kotla Ground of the Arun Jaitley Stadium this year.

"I asked Kohli about the formula for getting big scores. He said, 'Every batsman has a template, just keep repeating it and things will add up'. I was impressed by his work ethic, and with him around I never felt that I was sitting with anyone else," said Vats, the opening batsman who led Noida Wonders as captain with aplomb, helping them romp to a 66-run win over Collage in the Lala Raghubir Singh Memorial Cricket Tournament at the Modern School Grounds, Barakhamba Road on Monday.

That guidance seems to have helped Vats as he has been getting some big scores recently.

On Monday, he hammered 156 off 108 balls (11x4s, 10x6s) that helped his team Noida Wonders reach 392/7 in the allotted 40 overs. Fellow opener Priyansh Bhardwaj scored 61 off 38 balls (4x4s, 5x6s) while Ankur Kaushik hit 90 off 45 balls (6x4s, 8x6s).

Vats and Bhardwaj added 101 in 12 overs. Collage were bowled out for 326 in 30.5 overs with Ashwini Chillar making 70 and Shubham Rohilla scoring 54.

"We had lost the toss and I was disappointed. I wanted to bowl," said Vats.

On a batting pitch and a relatively small ground like that of Modern School, Barakhamba Road, using the early morning moisture is crucial for the bowling side.

It was also a homecoming for him. He is a product of Modern School and also played for LB Shastri Cricket Club in the past. Needless to say, he was 'inspired by Gautam Gambhir in the early years of his career'.

"But once we batted, I thought we'll see off the early period and then get as many runs as we can. We wanted to keep wickets in hand for the last 10 overs. We managed 392 and it was going to be tough for any team to chase that big a total," added Vats, who is 25 and was part of the Delhi Ranji Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 teams this season.

Vats had played one Ranji Trophy game this season, the outright win against Assam and remained unbeaten on 25 there. But he was axed for the next match against Chandigarh without any reason. Delhi lost that game against Chandigarh and that began the slide for them.

He also played a T20 game in the National T20s for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

But Delhi's last game against Railways, where he was on the bench, seemed to have given him a boost.

He has been getting big scores since then. Vats scored 162 not out in a game at Shri Rajpati Mishra Tournament at Alpha Cricket Ground, Ghaziabad, 109 in BR Sharma Memorial Cricket Tournament, where he emerged as the best batsman with an aggregate of 499 runs.

Vats, who has been playing cricket since the age of 7, has 350-odd runs in seven matches of the DDCA League.

The Lala Raghubir Singh Memorial Cricket Tournament is part of Delhi cricket's Hot Weather circuit. 

Tags : Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, Gagan Vats, DDCA, Lala Raghubir Singh Memorial, Modern School