South Africa’s promising teenage cricketer Dewald Brevis, who is dubbed as Baby AB for a playing style similar to legendary batter AB de Villiers, made an instant impact with a solid cameo on his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut for Mumbai Indians in Pune on Wednesday.
The 5-time champions snapped up the U19 World Cup 2022 star for Rs 3 crore, up from his base price of Rs 20 lakh and the youngster showed glimpses of his worth with the bat in his 29-run cameo. Brevis was stumped for 29(19) after showing glimpses of why he is compared to the Proteas and RCB legend.
Brevis, who walked in after captain Rohit Sharma fell to Umesh Yadav, played with the license to take on everyone as he started with aggressive boundaries off Umesh and Pat Cummins and then smashed Varun Chakravarthy for a sensational ‘No-LOOK SIX’ before getting stumped to the KKR spinner. Brevis’s stocks grew during the U19 World Cup in West Indies.
Brevis broke an 18-year-old record for the most runs scored in a single edition of the U19 World Cup. Brevis broke Shikhar Dhawan’s record for the most runs, overtaking the India opening batter’s tally of 505 runs, scoring 506 runs. Shikhar Dhawan hit 505 runs in the 2008 U19 World Cup which India won under Virat Kohli’s captaincy.
Dewald Brevis was in scintillating form in the U19 World Cup in the West Indies as he began his campaign against India U19 with a stroke-filled 65. He then followed it up with a 104 against Uganda. He hit 96 against Ireland and 97 against England in the quarter-final.
