WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K!

The IPL is not only the world's richest sports league, it also produces the most fantastic stories, like the teenage slayer of international reputations

Aged 14 Tiger Woods won the Junior World Golf Championship (for the fifth time.) At 14, Sachin Tendulkar scored 326 not out for his school and put on a then world record 664-run partnership with Vinod Kambli. Last night (April 28^th 2025) we witnessed a Tiger/Sachin moment. A century in 35 balls – the second fastest ever in IPL history – by 14 year old left hander Vaibhav Suryavanshi. 14 years and 32 days to be precise. Infact as this was played infront of a packed house in the best professional franchise cricket league in the world, it was beyond Tiger/Sachin. They only properly came to prominence with adults when they were in their late teens. This was pure fantasy-land.

On the latest Analyst Inside Cricket podcast we tried to put into words the magnitude of Suryavanshi’s achievement. We were as unsuccessful as the Gujurat Titans bowlers were powerless. Here was a cherubic-featured teen who hasn’t started shaving yet smiting Indian opening bowlers – Mohammed Siraj - back over their heads for six, and tonking fast bowlers with over 100 Test appearances to their name – Ishant Sharma – over the mid-wicket fence as if swatting a fly.

Rashid Khan, the most sought-after leg spin bowler in the world, was hoisted over square leg and rifled back past him with such ferocity it almost took his hand off. The decidedly swift Prasidh Krishna – another Indian Test bowler – was hooked beyond deep square leg and smashed over extra cover. It was a withering, unrelenting assault containing 11 sixes – several onto the roof of the Jaipur stand - that perhaps only Chris Gayle (who still holds the record for the fastest IPL century, in 30 balls) could have unleashed. It made his partner Yashasvi Jaiswal, himself a breakout star, look almost pedestrian. It was an astonishing piece of sporting drama.

Perhaps the only person who wasn’t surprised was the man who picked Suryavanshi out of a Rajasthan Royals trial and recommended him for a rookie contract. Zubin Bharucha is a former first-class player who has been with the Royals since the inception of the tournament in 2008. He has a special eye for talent. He saw the potential in 19 year old Ravindra Jadeja, spotted the talent in a young Sanju Samson, identified the 17 year old Jaiswal as a future superstar after he’d faced just two balls in a trial.

When stories first emerged a couple of months ago that the Royals had signed Suryavanshi – who was then still only 13 – I asked Zubin about him. “He’s highly gifted,” he wrote. “I haven’t seen anyone so young bat like this, Tendulkar is the only other name that comes to mind. He might be 13 or max 14 or 15 but either way he is super young and incredibly gifted. He can hit a long ball, high pace doesn’t trouble him, but he just hasn’t had the experience to know how to score runs in this format as yet. Although he is a fast learner and I don’t think it’s going to take too long, definitely feel like he will make huge strides.”

Talent spotter: Zubin Bharucha with Yashasvi Jaiswal

His observations have proved prescient. Ten days ago Suryavanshi hit the first ball he received in the IPL - from another Test bowler Shardul Thakur – for six over wide mid-off. In that innings he made 34 from 20 balls. He cried when he was out, as most 14 year olds would. His second outing was brief (16 off 12 balls with two sixes) and now this outlandish assault. There were one or two streaky shots, but in the main it was clean hitting, wonderful timing and exceptional audacity. The batter he most admires – Brian Lara - and slightly resembles in whirring hand speed and gargantuan follow-through, would have been proud of it. (Lara, who retired before Suryavanshi was born, ironically, missed out on the IPL after asking the original founder, Lalit Modi, for too big a guarentee.)

Suryavanshi hails from the rural town of Samastipur in Bihar, one of the poorer Indian states not far from the Nepalese border. He is further evidence of India increasingly drawing incredible talent from their distant outposts. Suryavanshi’s father sold farming land to pay for his son’s cricket coaching. He built a practice net on the side of the house. From aged 9 Vaibhav was travelling 100 km every other day to Patna for training. He made headlines when he scored a rapid century on debut for India U/19s against Australia aged 12. Like Tendulkar he also has a triple century to his name in junior cricket.

I played against Tendulkar in county cricket when he was 18. Although I somehow dismissed him caught behind in the first innings with a miraculous leg-cutter, he took revenge in the second with an undefeated hundred. I remember this total certainty and complete conviction of his play and the unmistakable impression that his bat seemed wider than everyone elses. The same applied to Suryavanshi. The confidence he had to unfurl his shots, and the mystified expression when one didn’t come off, as if he was thinking ‘how did I not hit that into the stand?!’ were extraordinary in someone so young and unproven.

Bharucha cautions: “Now the real challenges will begin as teams plan against his strengths.” But the thing is, in this format, with these restrictions on bowlers and such short boundaries, there’s not much they can do. Just imagine what he’ll be capable of when he grows up. At least seeing the destruction he has inflicted makes me feel vindicated when I retired from all cricket after being reverse swept by a 14 year old. Rupee for the bowlers’ thoughts?