Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s ton for RR against GT didn’t come without a warning on Monday. The 14-year-old’s 34 off 20 balls cameo on IPL debut against Lucknow provided ample indication of his prowess
Rajasthan Royals’ Vaibhav Suryavanshi celebrates his century during an Indian Premier League match against Gujarat Titans in Jaipur on Monday. Pic/PTI
Nothing quite thrills sports fans more than a young sportsperson coming up with a sensational, stupendous and scintillating show.
On Monday night—India with the rest of the world—virtually stood up and applauded Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s Indian Premier League (IPL) century for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans in Jaipur.
The left-handed opener’s hundred turned out to be the second-fastest century in IPL history and the youngest to score a hundred in the glitzy T20 league.
Gujarat Titans didn’t exactly have a pop gun bowling attack. Mohd Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Prasidh Krishna and Rashid Khan have had more than just a bite of international cricket.
Shaun Pollock, the former South Africa captain, saying on Cricbuzz that Suryavanshi’s rollicking innings was the greatest individual performance the IPL has seen, speaks volumes of the feat. Pollock, who played in the inaugural edition of the IPL for Mumbai Indians and must have watched Brendon McCullum’s tournament-opening ton for Kolkata Knight Riders on television, is not given to hyperbole. His view on Suryavanshi as an accomplished former all-rounder and a sharp analyst must be taken seriously even though many will feel McCullum’s ton was the most powerful trigger for the IPL. That Suryavanshi’s sixes (11) outscored the fours (7) reflected the ferocity in his strokeplay and physical strength in his 14-year-old frame, but let’s not forget the timing factor.
West Indies fast bowler-turned-commentator Ian Bishop said on ESPNcricinfo that Suryavanshi’s knock was “phenomenal and mind-blowing.” Bishop has seen some young talents come good and wither away. In 1990, he bowled to a 17-year-old Sachin Tendulkar on the Indian stalwart’s first Test tour to England. I remember the late Madhav Mantri, who was manager of that Mohd Azharuddin-led and Bishan Singh Bedi-coached team, telling me that Tendulkar couldn’t wait to play the July 16 one-day tour game against Derbyshire because he wanted to face pacy Bishop. By the end of the day, India were victors by a two-wicket margin, with Tendulkar peeling off an unbeaten 105 from 149 balls with two sixes and seven fours at Chesterfield.
Suryavanshi reminds some observers of Brian Lara, but you’d be fascinated to see how similar is his six that got him the hundred, to Garry Sobers’ hit which earned him the six sixes-in-an-over record in 1968 at Swansea, where the ball was lost.
Suryavanshi is a player the great West Indian would love to watch considering he wrote in Cricket Advance, “I have always been particularly interested in opening batsmen.”
Suryavanshi’s ton didn’t come without a warning. On his IPL debut against Lucknow Super Giants on April 19 at the same Sawai Mansingh Stadium, he smashed 34 off 20 balls while chasing 181 for victory. He lit up the venue by smashing the first ball of his IPL career for six off Shardul Thakur. Two more maximums followed and his innings qualified as a fine cameo. And if fans spotted moist eyes as the teenager walked towards the dugout after Rishabh Pant had him out of his crease, their eyes were not letting them down. He swung wildly in the next game against hosts Royal Challengers Bengaluru, looking to add to his 16 runs, but was castled by the foxy Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Back at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Suryavanshi played Demolition Boy against the 2022 champions and 2023 runners-up on Monday.
Suryavanshi’s life will never be the same after this sort of performance. Expectations will rise and so will the pressure to duplicate a show like this. Indeed, cricketers will envy his talent, but not the kind of burden which comes with his newfound stardom. Luckily for him, he has simply the best—Rahul Dravid—to mentor him and the Bengaluru-based former India captain and coach and can be a taskmaster. A lot of cricketers who played under Dravid will vouch for that. Suresh Raina related a story on social media recently about how Dravid didn’t like a particular T-shirt he had worn during a tour of Malaysia in 2005. He made the rookie change into a suitable one then and there. Rajasthan Royals players over all these years have had the good fortune of turning to Zubin Bharucha to lift their game several notches and I’ll be surprised if Suryavanshi hasn’t already profited from sessions with the former Mumbai opener.
Lean patches Suryavanshi will undoubtedly face, and that’s where he will probably learn the most valuable of lessons.
All branches of the big media tree will want more of Suryavanshi. That’s understandable, but he can’t satisfy everyone. Less than 12 hours after Suryavanshi’s IPL epic, I woke up to a message from an overseas journalist friend. “This Vaibhav has an agent etc,” he asked. I couldn’t provide an answer to the question, but what I do know is that Suryavanshi can be an agent of cheer and excitement.
mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
