Mumbai: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is the talk of the town or should we say the toast of the nation, to be more precise. The 15-year-old from Samastipur in Bihar has showcased his extraordinary potential on the biggest stage against the best bowlers in the world since his debut season in 2025, where he had blasted 252 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of 206.55.
However, what the teenage prodigy did at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati on Tuesday against the best all-format bowler of the generation, and perhaps all-time, will go down as stuff of cricketing legend.
The Jasprit Bumrah-Vaibhav Sooryavanshi battle was one of the most highly anticipated face-offs and when the Indian pace spearhead bowled a juicy half volley on his leg stump first up, the young southpaw deposited the ball over wide long on with the composure that one normally associates with a seasoned pro.
Well, talking about seasoned professionals, now into his second season and having battered 122 runs in 49 balls in the current edition of the world's biggest cricket league, Sooryavanshi is showing that he is indeed the real deal.
With blazing knocks against Chennai Super Kings (52 off 17), Gujarat Titans (31 off 18) and the latest installment of his burgeoning enterprise against a hapless Mumbai Indians, where he smashed 39 off 14 balls that comprised one four and five sixes, Sooryavanshi is proving with each passing game that age is just a number.
Having celebrated his 15th birthday last month on March 27th, Sooryavanshi is officially eligible to represent India in international matches and with the pace and frequency at which he is dismantling opposition bowling attacks with the best in the business, the youngster certainly makes a strong case for an inclusion in India's T20I squad.
With Team India set to play a whole bunch of T20Is at away and home beginning June in Ireland, Sooryavanshi should definitely be part of conversations among the five wise men of Indian cricket.
The lad had certainly proven his mettle in plenty in the debut season and has now stamped his authority on the bowlers across the spectrum with an audacity, confidence and nonchalance that is hard to find in regular 15-year-olds at this level of competition.
It's never easy to play the way he plays against the likes of Matt Henry, Noor Ahmad, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult, Mohammad Siraj and the incomparable Bumrah, but credit where its due to Sooryavanshi that he made it look like business as usual with ruthless efficiency.
India have oodles of talent and riches in their back-to-back T20 World Cup winning side but Sooryavanshi on his current red-hot form should not be denied a place and not surely for his age.
The teen sensation has made a mockery of conventional thinking and mindset with what he has done and can do going forward and one thing that can't be held against him is his age.
The sheer ferocity that he brings to the table at the top of the order will be something that the Indian think-tank would love to have in their corner and hope the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Ajit Agarkar, Gautam Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav would find prudence in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's selection.
