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Cricket PlayersVaibhav Sooryavanshi is not the next Sachin Tendulkar – and with all due respect, he doesn’t need to be
Brush aside the aspirations of becoming the next Sachin Tendulkar, because Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 1.0 is enough for India.
It’s no longer fashionable to ask what you were doing when you were 14, because few have done even at 24 what Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has done just into his teens.
Just about the only confusion when it comes to the young lad is whether he is Sooryavanshi or Sooryavanshi. At some stage, that will sort itself out. For now, the left-hander is busy sorting out bowling attacks, putting them in their place, and doing so with the flair, chutzpah and authority of someone who is a seasoned campaigner, not the babe in the woods that he truly is.
Also Read: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Player of the Match and Series as IND clinch 6th world title
Handpicked by former national junior selection panel chairman VS Thilak Naidu, the ex-Karnataka wicketkeeper-batter, Sooryavanshi has bucked every convention. Comparisons have sought to be drawn with Sachin Tendulkar, for obvious reasons. Like Sooryavanshi is doing now, Tendulkar made waves as an early teenager; the little big man of Indian cricket made the progression through the ranks from precious, precocious youngster to a member of the national side in ridiculously quick time, bypassing age-group cricket. But Sooryavanshi’s growth has been more carefully charted because for all his incandescence, he is no Tendulkar. Not yet, at the very least, maybe not ever at all.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi doesn't need to be India's next Sachin Tendulkar
But, without sounding disrespectful, Sooryavanshi doesn’t have to be the next Tendulkar. All he has to remain is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 1.0 because that is enough. More than enough.
The larger world saw what the baby-faced teenager could do in IPL 2025 when his first scoring stroke in the world’s premier 20-league was a nonchalant six, off the experienced Shardul Thakur. Rajasthan Royals, known for conservatism, threw caution to the wind and shelled out ₹1.1 crore for the then 13-year-old, and were immediately rewarded for their adventurism when the opener became the youngest centurion in all senior cricket with a stunning 35-ball century against Gujarat Titans.
His procurement at the mega auction in Jeddah wasn’t just on a wing and a prayer. By then, he had already announced himself at the Under-19 level internationally, smacking a 58-ball century in a ‘Test’ match against Australia in Chennai. There was little danger then that the odd three-figure knock was a flash in the pan. Yes, his game was high-risk, but he also had the basics that enabled him to tread the risk-reward tightrope with reasonable alacrity.
Unless he was/is prone to self-destruction, Sooryavanshi should look forward to the future with hope and starry-eyed, lofty ambitions. He has already led the Indian Under-19 team – to victory – in the bilateral series against South Africa leading into the World Cup, and showed that the cares of captaincy sit lightly on his young but broad and sturdy shoulders, following up 68 in the second match with a blazing 127 in the next.
In what is certain to be his only Under-19 World Cup unless India break with a recent tradition of their own making that restricts every player’s appearance at the biennial event to just one, Sooryavanshi has been a picture of consistency and unbridled destruction. During IPL 2025, Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming had sounded out a warning to India’s Under-19 World Cup opponents, saying he feared for those who ran into Sooryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre, the captain. Mhatre, who broke out under Fleming with CSK, hasn’t had the greatest of World Cups as a batter but Sooryavanshi has been in stunning touch.
He kicked off with just two in the opener against USA, but turned on the heat thereafter, reeling off 72 (Bangladesh), 40 (New Zealand), 52 (Zimbabwe) and 30 (Pakistan) to play a significant role in India’s entry into the knockout phase. Aware that he needed to set the early tone after his side was asked to chase down 311 in the semifinal by Afghanistan, he lay into the new-ball attack, raining boundaries with unchecked fury to race to his fifty off just 24 deliveries. It was Sooryavanshi unleashed, at his fiercest, most marauding best, and by the time he was dismissed on the pull, he had hurtled along to 68 off just 33 deliveries.
Centurion Aaron George, the Player of the Match, and Mhatre carried on the good work and Vihaan Malhotra applied the finishing touches but there were no prizes for guessing who the difference was between the sides.
They say of those destined for great things that they bring their ‘A’ game to the most decisive contest, and none can be grander than a cup final. England were formidable foes, having conquered defending champions Australia in the semifinal. Mhatre opted to bat on Friday, and Sooryavanshi teed off in sensational fashion. England came armed with gameplans, including trying to exploit a perceived weakness against the short ball, but Sooryavanshi destroyed their best-laid plans with incredible abandon.
Fours and sixes cascaded off his scything willow with unerring frequency. Fifty off 32 deliveries was made to look pedestrian as his century was raised in 55; from 100 to 175 took just 25 more deliveries when he finally put England out of their misery, caught behind attempting a slog-sweep. Final tally, 175 off 80. 15 fours and 15 sixes, struck clean and crisp and long, strike-rate 218.75. Bland, cold statistics, but they present a chilling picture of mayhem, of annihilation, of a tsunami sweeping through the Harare Sports Club.
It beggars belief just what heights he would have touched had Sooryavanshi batted a little while longer. After all, 147 deliveries were still left in the innings when he walked back to a rousing reception, having contributed 69.72% of the 251 runs scored when he was in the middle. India added 160 after his fall to finish on 411 for nine, but even though they scored at well over six an over for the second half of their innings, such was Sooryavanshi’s iridescence that even that looked stately and laboured.
Another IPL season is seven weeks away, and Sooryavanshi will target more carnage in his continued bid to break into the senior side. He will turn 15 on March 27; will 15 be the magical number that earns him his India cap? Watch this space.
