Born three years after the IPL was launched, Sooryavanshi is a teen tornado

By K.R. Nayar 

Mumbai.  Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) 15-year-old wonder boy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, smashed Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to ensure RR an eight-wicket win on Monday. Although he is not yet eligible to get a driving license since he just 15, in cricket, there is no age limit to be in the driver’s seat. And unfortunately for the CSK bowlers, this boy does not care about speed limits. He took only 15 balls to reach his half-century during his 17-ball knock of 52 runs. 

The IPL started in 2008 and Sooryavanshi was born in 2011. For a boy younger than the tournament, to bat with such audacity may seem disrespectful to the tournament itself, forget being inconsiderate to CSK’s reputation. For someone who is not a fan of cricket, watching his shots would seem like a video game in which a player hits sixes with ease. His knock was such that no one could press the pause button as long as he was at the crease. 

Wonder if he does his school homework too at such speed! From now on, parents are likely to encourage their children to finish their homework just like Sooryavanshi plays his innings. 

On his birthday, March 27, Sooryavanshi slept early, not wanting the birthday cake to be smeared all over his face at midnight. But he does seem to enjoy smearing the deliveries bowled to him to every part of the ground. The CSK bowlers looked helpless, as if their coaches had never taught them how to bowl. In fact, it looked like this 15-year-old had set the question paper for the bowlers’ examination. Though in his mid-teens, he batted like a player who has regularly hit the ball with brutal force and timing.

Years ago, when Sachin Tendulkar did the same, great bowlers realised that teenagers too need to be respected since they are also capable of doing unbelievable things. A bowler may have worked hard for more years to earn his reputation than the batter at the crease, but if a batter, including a teenager, has the skill, he can only pray and bowl at him. Sooryavanshi looks like a teenager out to do anything without any fear or nervousness.

While it was a bowlers’s day at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, it was not so for those who bowled to Sooryavanshi.  In fact, the Player of the Match was Nandre Burger of RR, who bowled brilliantly to take two wickets for only 26 runs from his four overs.

Another notable aspect of Sooryavanshi’s knock was that there was no wild slogging, but well-timed shots. One can call it calculated violence wrapped in elegance. While his opponents, CSK, have performed miracles on the field before, on Monday they were watching a miracle unfold when Sooryavanshi recorded the third-fastest half-century in the IPL after Yashasvi Jaiswal (13 balls in 2023) and KL Rahul (14 balls in 2018).

The impact of Sooryavanshi’s knock will travel beyond Guwahati, inspiring every kid who picks up a bat in the narrow, dusty gullies, or a cramped maidan like those in Mumbai, where the slips can be the mid-off for another team playing on the same ground. 

Sooryavanshi could soon end the lack of respect that young wonder-kids often endure when people remark, “he is only a kid.”  For Sooryavanshi, fear is only optional, and hence that remark must retire soon. At 15, he is batting like the future has arrived early.