Captain Vaibhav Suryavanshi is organic and unprecedented; at 14, the precocious left-hander has the world at his feet
The captaincy is an acknowledgement of Vaibhav Suryavanshi's batting pyrotechnics, more than anything else.
As a 14-year-old involved in team sports at school, what is our first goal? To represent our educational institution, right? To proudly don the school colours, to do battle with fellow 14-year-olds, to earn bragging rights.
At 14, sometimes, if we are lucky, we bask in the glory of an unexpected World Cup victory by our heroes. We are still struggling to break into the school side, but there is a certain pride in being an Indian because our team has just bucked all odds and coveted ultimate glory. We console ourselves at flunking the selection trials by telling us we are too puny (never too not good enough), never mind if our father is the principal. It happens, you know.
And then, there are 14-year-olds who are representing the country. Not just playing for, but captaining the national Under-19 side, if only on a temporary basis. Welcome to the world of Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Life has been one rapid, whirlwind journey for the teenager from Bihar who, next week, will lead India in a three-match series in South Africa, the final dress rehearsal before the 50-over World Cup in Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Also Read: Vaibhav Suryavanshi named India’s new Under-19 captain for South Africa tour; Ayush Mhatre to lead in World Cup
Speed clearly thrills Suryavanshi, the precocious left-hander to whom breaking records has become second nature. A year and a bit back, when he was still 13, he became the youngest player to be picked in an IPL auction, bought for ₹1.1 crore by Rajasthan Royals. It didn’t take him long to show that there was more to him than novelty value.
On his IPL debut, just a fortnight after his 14th birthday, he announced himself emphatically, his first scoring stroke a six off Shardul Thakur in a two-run loss to Lucknow Super Giants as he smashed 34 off 20. As if to reiterate that that had nothing to do with beginner’s luck came a mesmeric 101 off a mere 38 deliveries in his next outing, an eight-wicket rout of Gujarat Titans as he made a target of 210 appear ridiculously minuscule. Against Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Prasidh Krishna, Rashid Khan and Sai Kishore, Suryavanshi unleashed seven fours and 11 sixes on his way to a hundred off 35 deliveries, making him the youngest ever to produce a T20 century.
Other ‘youngest ever’ would follow, not least last week when he amassed 190 against Arunachal Pradesh, making him the youngest centurion in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy. Against men much older than him, some of whose feet he might touch in deference simply because of where they are in the age spectrum.
Suryavanshi isn’t destined to have a ‘normal’ childhood inasmuch as there is something like a normal childhood. He is, instead, destined to have a cricketing career of the kind most can only dream of – if he keeps his head on his shoulders, and if the rub of the green goes his way, because for all the immense ability one might possess, nothing can be achieved without the benevolence of lady luck.
In his 23 and a half months in representative senior cricket, Suryavanshi has proved himself to be the real deal. His Ranji Trophy record is modest, but in the white-ball formats, he is a fearless, universally feared destroyer; in seven 50-over games, he averages 46 while striking at 157.83. A larger sample size in T20 cricket makes for even more impressive reading – an average of 41.23 and a strike-rate of 204.37 (that’s two runs-plus for every ball faced) in 18 innings, among them three hundreds and a highest of 144. These are surreal, unreal numbers for a teen, let alone someone still four months shy of his 15th birthday. To say that the world is Suryavanshi’s oyster will be a gross understatement.
It's armed with these figures, including three centuries in his last nine innings – two for Bihar, one for India U-19 against UAE in the Asia Cup a fortnight ago – that Suryavanshi has wended his way towards the captaincy of the national U-19 side for the three-match series in South Africa beginning on January 3. Suryavanshi has only been blessed with the captaincy because, in a strange if unpleasant coincidence, regular skipper Ayush Mhatre and his deputy Vihaan Malhotra are both nursing wrist injuries. The duo will be available for the World Cup, starting January 15, but their unfortunate unavailability has brought Suryavanshi even more into the limelight, if that were possible.
What can we expect from a 14-year-old leading an Under-19 national side? One really isn’t sure, because Suryavanshi’s leadership credentials haven’t been given a chance to express themselves. Given the intrepidness of youth, it is unlikely that the cares of captaincy will adversely impact his batting. That he is so young and yet has been made the skipper won’t affect his colleagues because they know that among equals – and there aren’t many on his side that are his equal – Suryavanshi is clearly the first. The captaincy is an acknowledgement of his batting pyrotechnics, more than anything else, in a series that, on its own, doesn’t have too much significance. Except for Suryavanshi, the captain, in whose overflowing cap has been added another exquisite feather.
