Vihaan Malhotra became the hero (Photo: Johan Rynners-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
U19 World Cup 2026: Vihaan Malhotra is generally known for his batting. But, in the Under-19 ODI World Cup 2026 match against Bangladesh, he turned the tables with his bowling. Vihaan was the trump card of the Indian team against Bangladesh. He gave the best performance of his Under-19 career with the ball in difficult conditions and led Team India to victory against Bangladesh.
RCB had bought Vihaan for 30 lakhs
Vihaan Malhotra is among the players of the U19 team who have been bought in the IPL 2026 auction. RCB has bought Vihaan at his base price. Now when he showed in the U19 World Cup 2026 match against Bangladesh that he can change the match not only with the bat but also with the ball, then RCB must have been excited.
How did Vihaan Malhotra turn the match?
Now the question is how did Vihaan Malhotra turn the tables? How did they push Bangladesh into defeat? The answers to these questions start from the thinking of India’s Under-19 team captain Ayush Mhatre. After the rain stopped in Bulawayo, Bangladesh set out to chase the revised target of 165 runs in 29 overs. There were 21 overs of play in which he had scored 106 runs. That means 59 runs were required in the next 8 overs. In such a situation, Ayush Mhatre handed the ball to his part-timer Vihaan Malhotra with full confidence.
Career best bowling performance
Indian captain Ayush Mhatre’s move to hand the ball to Vihaan worked. They started hunting Bangladeshi batsmen one by one and with every wicket the match kept falling into India’s lap. Within no time, Vihaan Malhotra gave the best bowling performance of his U19 ODI career. Vihaan Malhotra took 4 wickets giving just 14 runs in 4 overs.
What did Ayush Mhatre say on the decision to bowl to Vihaan?
Indian captain Ayush Mhatre, behind his decision of handing the ball to Vihaan Malhotra with full confidence, said that I believed that Bangladesh would not be thinking that in those difficult times, we would hand the ball to a part-timer instead of our specialist bowler. In simple words, they were not ready for that, which gave us the advantage.
Vihaan Malhotra became player of the match
While batting, Vihaan Malhotra may have scored 7 runs in 24 balls, but he made a partnership of 41 runs in 41 balls with Vaibhav Suryavanshi for the third wicket. Apart from this, he also took the catch in the match with which Bangladesh’s innings ended. Vihaan Malhotra was chosen player of the match for his all-round game.