Paul Valthaty

“A delivery hit him straight in the eye. For the next year or two, his vision was… disturbed”

In less than two hours this week, Paul Valthaty showed us what we’d missed for a decade. He crunched Chennai’s bowling for 120 runs in only 63 balls, which is unique enough, but the way in which he scored these runs was astonishing. An innings filled with fierce pulls and violent cuts made viewers wonder—who is this guy?

Valthaty was once seen as an India probable. Dilip Vengsarkar, his coach, told The Times of India that Valthaty participated at the Vengsarkar Academy for a few years, but “on a tour to New Zealand, in a match against Bangladesh I think, a delivery hit him straight in the eye. For the next year or two, his vision was a little disturbed.” It was after that injury that Valthaty reportedly lost momentum. “Then consistency became a matter of concern. He played one one-dayer for Mumbai, but failed to make the cut for West Zone. It was all very unfortunate.” Yes, it was.

The annals of Indian cricket are littered with the carcasses of abandoned dreams, but Valthaty, at 27, doesn’t seem to have given up just yet. Sachin Tendulkar is over 35. Shane Warne is over 40. Heck, a recent generation of Australian cricketers began to grow into their role only around 30. With India on the cusp of losing some of its finest middle-order batsmen, there will be places open for new and old contenders alike.

If his astonishing hundred wasn’t enough, Valthaty followed it up with another blistering innings and four wickets, to boot. Like Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the first game, Kumar Sangakkara had no answer to Valthaty’s strokeplay. The website Cricinfo was succinct about his approach: ‘…Valthaty did everything to suggest that as a batsman there is nothing he cannot do’.

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