Pakistan domestic cricket unearths Usama Baloch – a batsman who copies Kohli in style

Pakistan had unearthed a Virat Kohli in batsman Ahmed Shehzad earlier but it was more for the looks that the latter sported than any cricketing feat. In fact, the cricketer was even trolled in the past for comparing himself with the dashing Indian batsman. And now, the neighbours seem to have found another batsman as a close reply to the Indian captain and he is a teenager named Usama Baloch.

Baloch is only 18 but the batting style of the batsman born in Dera Murad Jamali in Pakistan’s Balochistan province has a striking similarity with that of Kohli. His backlift and using the face of the bat with a lot of dominance has made his similarity with Kohli relevant even though the youngster has to cover a long distance to match Kohli’s feats with the willow.

18 year old Dera Murad Jamali-born Usama Baloch batting in the Corporate T20 Cup. He models his batting on Virat Kohli #Cricket pic.twitter.com/B17pT57o78

— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) May 12, 2019

Baloch’s talent surfaced in a local tournament Karachi Premier League and videos of his exploits with the bat have already started going viral on social media. In one of the games, his team Johar Bears were in all sort of trouble at 37 for 5 and in came Baloch. He took the battle to the opposition and slammed 69 runs off just 39 balls to take his team home in the 18th over. His entire knock that was punctuated with seven sixes gave enough glimpses of Kohli’s batting style and the fans hope that he emerges fast to serve Pakistan cricket for long.

Impressive batting from Dera Murad Jamali-born 18 year old Usama Baloch, who smashed 69 runs off 39 balls including 7 sixes in the recent Karachi Premier League #Cricket pic.twitter.com/kLCEKGRoLr

— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) January 13, 2019

Baloch’s hand-eye coordination has already caught the attention of the experts and it looks he is seriously imitating his idol.

Identical copying though doesn’t deliver always

On the other hand, though, it is not always that identical imitation of a cricketing great’s batting style makes one successful. Indian’s domestic cricket had one batsman named Vinayak Mane who played for Mumbai and made an identical imitation of the great Sachin Tendulkar. But he could not really make it to the national side. Virender Sehwag was also referred to as a clone of Tendulkar when he had arrived on the scene but the former Delhi batsman made adjustments to his game to establish a different identity of his own in subsequent times.

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