At 14, Vaibhav Suryavanshi storms into record books with 35-ball century | Ipl News

As the clock struck 10.30 pm, 10.2 overs into their chase of 210, Rajasthan Royals’ Vaibhav Suryavanshi wrote his name in hory books depositing spinner Rashid Khan over midwicket. At 14 years and 32 days, he became the youngest ever to score a century in the IPL. It was also the second-fastest century ever in the league, in 35 balls. His head coach Rahul Dravid, who has been on a wheelchair because of an injury, jumped up on his feet to applaud what was truly an innings for the ages.In its 18 seasons, the IPL has been the grand theatre of dreams. Many “wonder boys” have come and stolen the show. Yet, no one has done it in the most breathtaking fashion as Suryavanshi. His 38-ball 101, with seven fours and 11 sixes, made short work of the chase as Rajasthan hunted down Gujarat Titans’ total of 209 in 15.5 overs in Jaipur.
Suryavanshi from Samastipur in Bihar, who grew up watching videos of Brian Lara, has already got many in Indian cricket excited about his potential.
Story continues below this ad

Posting on X, former chief selector and 1983 World Cup winner Krishnamachari Srikkanth wrote: “At 14, most kids dream & eat Icecream. Vaibhav Suryavanshi delivers a fabulous 100 against one of the contenders for IPL! composure, class and courage beyond his years. We are witnessing the rise of a phenom. Indian cricket’s next super star is here.”
Even before Monday night’s knock, Suryavanshi had made a mark.

Last November, he made headlines when, at 13, he hit a century against the Australia Under-19 team off 58 balls. All said and done, that was against boys. Last week, with their season struggling to take off, Rajasthan took a punt sending him out against Lucknow SuperGiants, where he hit the first ball he faced for a six to announce his arrival.
On Monday, he got off the mark launching Mohammed Siraj for a 90-metre six in the second ball before unleashing himself against Ishant Sharma, a veteran of 105 Tests. He hit Ishant for three sixes and two boundaries in the fourth over.Story continues below this ad
Still in his early teens, Suryavanshi is a developing batsman, so his range is limited — it is mostly in the arc between long-on and square-leg on the leg-side and between covers and long-off on the off-side. With his ability to pick the length early, he relies on muscle power to smash the white ball. Of the 11 sixes, eight came between mid-wicket and square-leg off the pacers and the spin bowling of Washington Sundar and Rashid.
“Be it fast bowlers or spinners, I love to hit them,” he had told this newspaper earlier. And at 14, he doesn’t complicate the game plan. “My plan is always simple —if the ball is there to be hit, hit it. Don’t be in a double mind,” he had said.

Vaibhav’s fearless approach, bat speed, picking the length early, and transferring the energy behind the ball was the recipe behind a fabulous innings.
End result: 101 runs off 38 balls.
Well played!!pic.twitter.com/MvJLUfpHmn
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 28, 2025
Once he got that big over off Ishant, he was prepared for everything that Gujarat threw at him. It was a night where line or length hardly mattered as there was something inevitable about the manner in which Suryavanshi went about his knock. Anything that was pitched within his reach disappeared into the stands, especially on the leg-side.

In many ways, Suryavanshi depicts the modern-day young Indian batsmen who aren’t afraid of pace bowling. If anything, they prefer it — using the pace to their advantage. When Gujarat brought on Rashid, he struggled — with little footwork and no intention to use the feet to get down the pitch, he appeared a sitting duck. But credit to Suryavanshi for not losing his head and not attempting anything that was out of his syllabus. With the required run-rate under control, he had the maturity to play Rashid safely. But if Rashid pitched anything in Suryavanshi’s reach, he seldom needed a second invitation.
If Suryavanshi’s father Sanjeev was watching it all unfold on television, a few happy tears would have been shed. When Sanjeev was working as a bouncer at a nightclub or at a Sulabh toilet or the port in Mumbai, watching young kids play cricket in the storied maidans, he had one dream — to make his kids cricketers. So Vaibhav would become that kid and Sanjeev would leave no stone unturned. He would come up with a net facility in their backyard, where Sanjeev would bowl for hours. With Vaibhav never wanting to move out of the nets, he would even hire a few unemployed youths to bowl at him for a meal in return. This was how Vaibhav, coming from a nondescript village in a state where multiple associations are trying to take control of the game, made it to the limelight.Story continues below this ad
Beyond Sanjeev, Suryavanshi found a guru in Manish Ojha who moulded him into a cricketer who could aspire to earn the India cap. “Frankly, the boy is gifted. He is at least 3-4 years ahead of anyone his age. If something is shown to him, he picks it up quickly. And before executing that in the middle, he would spend hours in the nets to make it muscle memory,” he said.
On Monday night, all those hours in the nets, combined with incredible self-belief and clean hitting, helped Suryavanshi make hory.