MUMBAI: Bihar’s teen batting sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi continues to show his penchant for smashing cricketing records at an age where kids bother more about ice creams and homework. On Friday, the 14-year-old explosive opener blazed away to 144 off just 42 balls in India A’s opening game in the Asia Cup Rising Stars 2025 against UAE at Doha. Suryavanshi’s century, coming off just 32 balls, was the joint-second-fastest by an Indian batter in T20 cricket. Suryavanshi would have been out for a golden duck if UAE captain Alishan Sharafu had held on to a simple catch at cover off the first ball of the match, bowled by Muhammad Farazuddin, but it wasn’t to be. Capitalizing on the ‘life,’ the dashing left-hander hammered 11 fours and 15 sixes during his whirlwind knock before getting out in the 13th over, finishing with a strike rate of 342.85. “Suryavanshi’s knock was electrifying. It was a brilliant, top-notch innings. What struck me about the sixes he hit during his knock was that he was striking the ball so cleanly. He has plenty of raw power, so even his mishits were going for sixes. We had planned for his dismissal, but he was dropped off the first ball. He went on to get 144 and deserves every bit of that stroke of luck,” gushed UAE head coach Lalchand Rajput, while talking to TOI from Doha after witnessing Suryavanshi’s latest ‘special’ from the sidelines. Bihar Ranji team head coach Vinayak Samant was naturally pleased to see his young vice-captain, who grabbed headlines for his white-ball performances for Rajasthan Royals in the last IPL and followed it up with a fine showing for the India U-19 team in Australia recently, serving yet another notice of his prodigious talent. Showering praise on Suryavanshi, Samant said, “He’s a very special and talented cricketer. He’ll definitely play for India, maybe at some stage next year itself, in white-ball cricket—especially in T20Is. In fact, if he keeps batting like this, he may even play Test cricket for India. How soon he plays for India will also depend on how much he works on his fitness.” “His talent reminds me of a young Rohit Sharma, though his batting style is more in the mould of Virender Sehwag, who will attack any ball pitched wide of the stumps. He has the ability to play for India for a number of years,” Samant complimented. “In this knock, he not only struck sixes but also played some beautiful ground shots—his cover drives were beautiful to watch. He was middling the ball superbly against UAE. What I liked was that he wasn’t playing cross-batted shots, but mostly playing his shots—even the sixes—in the ‘V.‘” After returning from a successful tour of Australia, Suryavanshi played in three Plate Division Ranji Trophy matches for Bihar, in which he scored 14 (vs Arunachal at Patna), didn’t get to bat against Manipur at Nadiad, and then smashed 93 off 67 balls against Meghalaya at Patna. “He has improved a lot. In the first game of the Ranji Trophy this season, he was out edging a ball outside the off-stump. Before the second match, he practiced leaving the ball. He then bounced back in his next outing, showing the patience required in red-ball cricket. During that innings, he wanted to leave and defend the ball, and was not just looking to smash it around. He hit some exquisite cover drives too. He’s a very sincere kid. He always wants to score runs. Playing in the India A set-up with players who are much senior to him will make him learn more,” Samant said. “Even after he joined the India A camp, he was very keen about following his Bihar team in the Ranji Trophy and was in touch with me. It shows his commitment towards our team. I really liked that attitude. It reminded me of the way Sachin Tendulkar would follow the fortunes of the Mumbai team from wherever he was playing in the world. After landing in Patna from Australia, he rushed straight to the Bihar team’s Ranji nets. He has that same quality that Sachin had—wanting to be there for his domestic team. IPL success hasn’t swayed him. He’s still very down-to-earth,” Samant said. Rajasthan Royals’ high-performance director Zubin Bharucha was a bit measured with his words when it came to praising Suryavanshi’s hurricane knock, since it came against a modest attack, suggesting that the young turk still needed to work on bettering his game. “The bowling was really pathetic, but still I guess one needs to put it away. The goal was to get to his half-century in the Power Play overs and then assess from there. His back-foot play needs a lot more work, as the better bowlers will target that,” Bharucha observed. This was Suryavanshi’s second T20 century, following his 35-ball blitzkrieg for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025. He is the youngest man to score a hundred in T20s.
