Vaibhav: Phenomenal at Fourteen

As recently as when this edition of the Indian Premier League began last month, Vaibhav Suryavanshi was still a 13-year-old. A 13-year-old crorepati at that, having received a final bid for Rs 1.1 crore from Rajasthan Royals, and that was almost unfathomable in terms of achievement for an 8th grader. Instantly, there were television advertisements being made where his ultra-young presence was being referred to, by the likes of MS Dhoni and Sanju Samson no less. It was heady stuff; breathtaking stuff; record-breaking in every which way, but he was yet to walk the talk and prove to the wider world that he was worth the hype. That would only happen if he got an opportunity to play some cricket.

When he did, in the toughest of environments that tend to get the better of grown men, the kid did more than just thrive, he owned. In Samson’s absence, Suryavanshi became the youngest-ever player to participate in the IPL. Unsatisfied with age-related laurels, he opened the innings for RR against Lucknow Super Giants and smacked the very first ball he faced in the IPL for a six over extra-cover. Just a couple of weeks into his 14th birthday, that six off Shardul Thakur at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur was already a watershed moment in league’s history and a major talking point of the ongoing season. Until, in just his third game, played against league-leaders Gujarat Titans on April 28, the Gen-Alpha child put on neon-lit display just how deep his talent runs with a century.

Not just any century, but the fastest by an Indian in the existence of this young league, which, for perspective, is four years older than Suryavanshi. The 35-ball hundred, which made very short work of GT’s target of 210, made Suryavanshi the youngest known centurion in the history of men’s T20 cricket around the world – played internationally or otherwise. Younger than the previous record-holder, 18-year-old Vijay Zol, by four whole years. Zol’s hundred, incidentally, came in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, India’s domestic T20 tournament. Suryavanshi’s was in the premier T20 cricket tournament in the world, against the very best bowlers of this season, an eclectic mix of four India internationals, past and present (Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar and Ishant Sharma), as well as the best spinner in the history of T20 cricket, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan.

The feat was, as Shaun Pollock put it simply in the Cricbuzz studio, “the greatest individual performance of the IPL, ever.” It truly was that phenomenal. But it was also fearless.

On Monday night, when boys his age were enjoying their summer holidays by perhaps tuning into the IPL, Suryavanshi hit the second ball he faced for a straight six measuring over 90 metres, back over bowler Siraj’s disbelieving head. Disbelief is also the best way to describe Ishant’s reaction when he pulled the first two balls he faced off the fast bowler with over 100 Test matches under his belt for sixes. The over cost Ishant 28 runs, taking the boy’s score from 9 off 7 to 35 off 13, with even an edge flying over third man for six. Not all of Suryavanshi’s runs came from the middle of his bat, but fortune agreed wholly with the brave.

Two more sixes in the following over bowled by spinner Sundar, both over his favoured leg side, followed by an uppish drive for a boundary brought up his 50 in just 17 balls – the fastest of this season and also the fastest by an uncapped Indian player ever, breaking the record of the batsman standing a pitch-length away, Yashasvi Jaiswal. Jaiswal was also playing a peach of an innings, but he was the first to admit later that Suryavanshi’s display overshadowed all that had happened in this league, before or during.

Afghanistan’s Karim Janat, making his IPL debut for GT, was given the unenviable task of tackling the Suryavanshi problem in the 10th over of the chase, with RR’s score already on 114 for no loss. Janat’s first and only over of the night cost him 30 runs, all of them scored by the 14-year-old, including a delectable flick for six off the fast bowler’s very first ball. It took Suryavanshi to 94 runs, from just 34 balls, and a nation held its collective breath.

They didn’t have to hold it for much longer, for as soon as he got on strike against the more dangerous Afghan in Rashid, Suryavanshi rocked onto his backfoot and planted the shortish ball into the heaving stands behind deep midwicket. It brought the wheelchair-bound coach of Rajasthan, Rahul Dravid, to his feet. But it wasn’t just the Royals who were celebrating, for everyone in the Gujarat dugout applauded, as did the players on the field.

In the middle of all this madness, Suryavanshi stayed calm. He yanked off his helmet, revealing the rolls of cherub on his cheeks and saluted the dressing room with his bat. Perhaps he is too young to realise this (which is a shame given that he will be very young for a long while still), but a 14-year-old had indeed changed not only his life and the game of cricket at large, but also the dreams and aspirations of young teenagers all over this vast country.

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