Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was four runs short of becoming the youngest centurion in Indian Premier League history when he holed out to long-on at Mullanpur on Wednesday night. The 15-year-old’s 97 from 29 balls — eight sixes, eight fours, a strike rate of 334.48 — carried Rajasthan Royals to 207 for 6 in their eliminator against Punjab Kings, and even in defeat by 12 runs it confirmed what the IPL has suspected since April: cricket has produced a generational hitter who has not yet sat his board exams.
Sooryavanshi reached fifty in 17 balls, the second-fastest by a teenager in T20 cricket, and was 91 from 27 when Arshdeep Singh returned for the 11th over. Two balls earlier he had pulled Kagiso Rabada for a flat six over deep midwicket that travelled 94 metres. He fell trying to clear the rope for a ninth time, miscuing Harshal Patel’s slower ball to Shashank Singh. The Mullanpur crowd, three-quarters of it in Punjab yellow, stood and applauded him off.
An innings built on fearlessness, not fluke
This was not a swing-and-hope cameo. Sooryavanshi faced 14 deliveries from Rabada and Arshdeep — two of the most accomplished new-ball bowlers in the competition — and took 38 runs from them without a play-and-miss. He went down the pitch to Rabada’s third ball of the match and lofted him straight back over his head for six, a shot Sunil Gavaskar on commentary described as “the most assured stroke I have seen from a 15-year-old in this tournament’s history”.
His range was the striking part. Three of his eight sixes came on the off side, including a reverse-scoop off Arshdeep that cleared third man by 15 metres. He swept Yuzvendra Chahal from outside off stump over deep square leg. When Harshal pulled his length back, Sooryavanshi simply opened the bat face and ran the ball past short third for four. Royals head coach Rahul Dravid, watching from the dugout, was seen shaking his head and laughing after a flicked six off the toes off Marco Jansen.
Sooryavanshi’s tournament numbers now read 487 runs at a strike rate of 207 from nine innings. He has hit 31 sixes, more than any opener in the competition bar Travis Head. Only Chris Gayle in 2013 and Andre Russell in 2019 have struck sixes at a higher rate across a full IPL season.
How a 15-year-old got here
Sooryavanshi, from Samastipur in Bihar, was bought by the Royals at auction in November for ₹1.1 crore — the reserve price — after scoring a hundred off 58 balls against Australia Under-19s the previous summer. He made his IPL debut on 19 April against Lucknow Super Giants and hit 101 from 38 balls, becoming the youngest centurion in men’s T20 franchise cricket anywhere in the world.
The Royals have managed him carefully. He has not faced the media since his debut. His father, Sanjeev, a farmer who sold a portion of his land to fund coaching trips to Patna, travels with him to every match. The franchise employs a tutor so he can keep pace with Class 10 schoolwork between fixtures.
- Born 27 March 2011 — turned 15 six weeks before this IPL began
- Selected for India Under-19s aged 12, the youngest in the squad’s history
- Holds the record for the fastest IPL fifty by an Indian (15 balls, against Gujarat Titans on 28 April)
- Has hit a six off the first ball he has faced in four separate IPL innings
Where this goes next
The Royals were eliminated, but Sooryavanshi’s name has already been raised in connection with India’s tour of England in July. Selectors meet on Saturday to confirm the squad for the five-Test series, and chief selector Ajit Agarkar acknowledged last week that “exceptional talent will not be ignored on grounds of age alone”. No player has represented India in Tests at 15 since the Board of Control for Cricket in India was founded in 1928. Sachin Tendulkar was 16 years and 205 days old on debut.
The harder question concerns workload. Sooryavanshi has played 47 competitive matches across formats since January, more than any Indian teenager on record. Dravid, who guided Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill through similar early surges, said on Wednesday night that “the bat will look after itself — the body and the mind are what we have to protect”. The Royals are expected to rest him from the Maharaja Trophy in August regardless of national selection.
For now, the numbers speak. Ninety-seven from 29 balls in a knockout match, against an attack containing two World Cup-winning seamers, at an age when most players in the IPL were still in primary school. The eliminator was lost. The argument about Sooryavanshi’s ceiling is over.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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