We are not playing the ‘What-were-you-doing-when-you-were-15-years-old’ game. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has already made that passe.
What started as a thrilling novelty 12 months back has now snowballed into a tsunami of gargantuan proportions, a tsunami that swept away the cricketing world in its thundering wake. At 14, Sooryavanshi became the youngest to score a senior representative T20 hundred last year. A year on, the records keep piling up as the kid the image-builders are seeking to promote as Baby Boss is bossing the cricketing landscape with a pulverising fist.
There is nothing not to like about the lad from Samastipur. We have been told ad nauseum that he watches cartoons before he goes out to bat. Let that not become his calling card. He might be young in the years spent on this earth, but he isn’t just a hit-and-giggle freak. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is the real deal, let’s not fool ourselves.
Also Read: ‘Mere 100s lagte rahenge’; Vaibhav Sooryavanshi least bothered about breaking Chris Gayle’s record
A smile to lit up the darkest night, an array of strokes to explode the most pervasive gloom, a presence that is unmistakably immense, a humility that is anything but affected. Okay, so maybe he is a freak after all (we say this in the nicest way), because when have we seen anything like this before?
Sure, we had Sachin Tendulkar, equally baby-faced when, as a 16-year-old, he took on and subdued Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Waqar Younis. Tendulkar was a generational phenom who made his way up the structured path of first-class cricket – hello, T20s in the late 1980s? – and quickly established himself as the fulcrum of the Indian batting. Even when he was 16, we knew he was cut out for eternal greatness. His challenge was to prove people right, something he did remarkably brilliantly over a 24-year career that ended up with a whopping 200 Test appearances and an impossible-to-match 100 international centuries.
Sooryavanshi, a different breed
Tendulkar belonged to a different, more genteel era, if you like. He grew on us instantly, but he wasn’t in your face because satellite television had yet to take deep root in his infancy as an international cricketer, social media was as much in the distant future then as the 20-over invention. The Mumbaikar dazzled with his technical expertise, his calmness and composure under pressure, his orthodoxly correct stroke-making even if it was dictated by an unusually dominant bottom hand.
Sooryavanshi is different, of course. He was born three years after the first edition of the IPL was played in 2008. He is yet to make a mark in first-class cricket – he averages 17.25 from eight matches and 12 innings for Bihar – and still only knocking on the doors of the Indian team, though that knock is increasingly becoming impossible to ignore. He is an out-and-out product of the T20 era though he has shown in his brief dalliances with 50-over play that there is a versatile batter lurking in that slightly heavy frame still suffused with baby fat.
But let’s not worry right now about whether he will make a great Test batter, a terrific 50-over destroyer or even a T20I stalwart. That’s for the future, never mind how immediate it might be. For now, let’s savour and cherish and celebrate and rejoice in a rare talent, one that has captivated a global audience, shocked a conservative cricketing community out of its uppityness and has elicited the highest praise from the aforementioned Tendulkar as well as equally destructive ball-strikers such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Yuvraj Singh and Kevin Pietersen.
Way too mature for his age
It is, of course, impossible to divorce Sooryavanshi from his age, even though his batting exploits would have been as hailed and eulogised if he was 19, say, and not 15. But if he wasn’t 15, would we be even debating if he should earn an India breakthrough? A spot in the squad, if not the XI, would be his by right but because he is 15, there is a tendency to be overly protective. Let’s not worry about that. The kid has shown that he can take care of himself, it’s perhaps the bowlers who need protection.
When was the last time we switched on the television to watch one cricketer? When we gasped in collective astonishment at the incandescence of his stroke-production, when we sighed in disappointment when he was dismissed playing a shot too many? When did we last feel when someone was dismissed for 97 – oh, that famous number in Indian cricket immortalised by GR Vishwanath against West Indies at Chepauk in 1975 – going for the six that would have helped him snatch a long-standing record away from the Universe Boss, Chris Gayle?
When have we seen the best fast bowlers in the world – Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood, Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins – being treated consistently with utter disdain? When have seen them spend hours poring over videos to identify non-existent chinks in the armour? When have so many opponents devoted so much time to stop a one-man wrecking ball who has lent new meaning to the word ‘chutzpah’?
Bowlers scared
It won’t be an exaggeration to state that he has instilled a certain ‘dread’ in the hearts of the best in the business. There is a certain mind-numbing, bone-chilling awareness that if they are even slightly off, they will be ruthlessly punished. There have been some celebrated destroyers of bowling attacks, headlined by Gayle and AB de Villiers, but no one has intimidated like Sooryavanshi. And, because it is convenient, we will invoke the ‘and he is only 15’ card here.
Sooryavanshi boasts the second- and third-fastest centuries in IPL history, off 35 and 36 deliveries respectively. Had he hit his 29th ball on Wednesday for six, instead of holing out to third-man, he would have broken Gayle’s 14-year-old record of a 30-ball hundred. This season, he has more runs (680) than anyone else, and has stacked up an otherworldly 65 sixes in 15 innings, breezing past the 59 sixes Gayle smacked in 2012. The Jamaican faced 456 balls that season, which translates to a six every 7.73 deliveries; Sooryavanshi has slammed a six every 4.31 balls (65 in 280). He averages 45.33 and strikes at 242.85 across 15 innings. Apart from a 36-ball ton, he has two scores in the 90s, both coming in his last three hits. Ridiculous, really.
Soak it all in
On Wednesday night, after receiving the Player of the Match award, Sooryavanshi revealed with refreshing candour that he wasn’t aware of the Gayle record until after his dismissal. But he shrugged off the possible disappointment, saying, “I will score hundreds (in the future), but the focus was on getting maximum runs for the team.” From most others, ‘I will score hundreds’ might have sounded boastful, arrogant even; not with Sooryavanshi, no sir.
His captain (Riyan Parag) and his coaches insist that they let him be, that they feed him as many balls at practice as he wants and refrain from complicating his thinking. But Sooryavanshi is no one-trick pony that blindly lashes out at every ball. Before each game, he sits on his haunches behind the stumps at one end, eyes closed as he visualises the opposition bowling and the areas he likes to target. He knows what he is doing, and if his batting is to be classed as madness, there certainly is great method to it.
Sooryavanshi carries his unique talent lightly, with humility and respect. Ahead of Wednesday’s Eliminator, during a game of touch football with his mates, he spotted Sunil Gavaskar on the outfield, discharging his broadcast duties. Sooryavanshi immediately dashed to the doyen of Indian batting, touching his feet and seeking his blessings, before doing likewise to Sanjay Bangar. This little fella, he is quite something. Untouched (as yet) by adulation, (seemingly) unaffected by the attention. Just a 15-year-old doing things that far older, wiser, more experienced and seasoned men can’t even dream of. Bravo!
