Not since the legendary Sachin Tendulkar has Indian cricket served up a teenager that has had the entire cricket world in awe. There have been many young prodigies in between, but Vaibhav Sooryavanshi stands tall above all of them. At 15 years old and 12 days, Sooryavanshi is an extraordinary generational talent.
Equally, he is the perfect prototype for the modern game, smashing sixes almost at will up the order in T20 cricket. Sooryavanshi faced an acid test of his potential on Tuesday evening. Rajasthan Royals were facing Mumbai Indians in a mega TATA IPL clash in Guwahati. The teenager, who had hit 68 sixes in 378 balls in T20 cricket coming into the game, was set to face the world’s best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah.
It is this audacious talent that SA20 Commissioner Graeme Smith has been keeping a close eye on during the opening weeks of the TATA IPL. “The IPL has started exactly how I expected it to, with flatter pitches and high-scoring games,” Smith said on his blog. “As always, it’s interesting to see how the old school superstars like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli perform, but I think this youngster for the Rajasthan Royals, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, is the one to watch in the opening few weeks.
“He has already shown his ability to power it right from ball one. As a young man, he could become a proper superstar over the course of the tournament and I’m really excited to see how he goes.”
Smith, who was part of the first-ever Rajasthan Royals squad to win the inaugural IPL back in 2008, believes the most popular T20 tournament in the world has revolutionized the global cricket landscape. He believes the success of the IPL has had a knock-on effect through SA20, which has revitalised cricket in South Africa and allowed for untapped talent to come to the fore. “Our six franchises are a huge, integral part of the growth of SA20. We were very fortunate to attract six IPL teams of high quality, and they’re the most experienced franchise owners in the world,”Smith said.
