I, For One, Welcome Our New 14-Year-Old Overlords
Vaibhav Suryavanshi is going to score One Trillion Runs.
Remember Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the 14-year-old child who took this year’s IPL by storm with a 35-ball hundred and a 200+ strike rate? He’s, to put it mildly, back at it again.
It’s not getting too much coverage, with all of the Big Three Test teams currently mid-series, plus some random collection of Caribbean islands, too, as well as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka trying to prove a point to I-don’t-know-who by playing a so-called “bilateral ODI series” (remember those?), and a Test between South Africa and Zimbabwe underway, England Women playing India Women, England Women’s A Team playing New Zealand Women’s A Team, the Blast (Men’s and Women’s), and MLC also in full swing. If you really want to get into the weeds, and I almost always do, Australia A is also playing Sri Lanka A, and European regional T20 qualifiers are underway. There’s a lot of cricket being played at the moment, is my point.
Accordingly, if you’re an English fan, firstly, my condolences. But secondly, with your Men’s, Women’s, Women’s A, and Blast Men’s and Women’s teams currently in action, you’d be forgiven (and, given the results, correct) for not also following the ongoing England Under 19s vs India U19 series. If you’re Indian, with your Men’s and Women’s teams both in action, a similar situation is true.
Yet, you’d be missing out, and here’s why. I want to list Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s scores in this series so far for you:
48 (19)
45 (34)
86 (31)
143 (78)
Overall, for the series, he has scored 322 runs at an average of 80.5 and a strike rate of 198.76. Highlights aren’t easy to come by, but you can find them with a little YouTube trawling.
This is, nominally at least, a 14-year-old child. Even if we grant that there’s maybe some smoke and mirrors around his true age, at worst, he’s perhaps 2-3 years older than his listed age—so 17 or 18—which is scarcely any less remarkable. When I was 14, I remember being utterly thrilled about scoring 29 off what must have been about 132 balls opening the batting. Another kid in my team came in at number five and blasted his maiden hundred that day, but I set the platform.
Let’s put these innings into slightly more context. All of the English bowlers Suryavanshi has faced are between 17 and 19 years old, 3-5 years older than him. Three of them—James Minto, Jack Home, and Tazeem Ali—have already played first-class cricket. The others have all played for their county’s second XIs. He’s not facing Walsh and Marshall, but nor is he facing some pop-gun club attack or a fellow U14 side.
In the first YODI, Suryavanshi’s 48 (19) came opening the batting in pursuit of England’s 174, which India U19 mowed down within 24 overs. He hit five sixes. England’s Rocky Flintoff (3) was the only other batter to hit multiple sixes. When he was dismissed, India U19 were 71/1 off 7.3 overs.
In the second match, his 45 (34) came batting first as India U19 set a total of 290, which England ultimately mowed down. Suryavanshi saw his captain dismissed off the first ball of the innings, but carried on unperturbed.
In the third match, Suryavanshi’s 86 (31) came chasing 268, which India U19 did comfortably in 34.3 overs. Along the way, he hit nine sixes, breaking Mandeep Singh’s record for most sixes in a U19 ODI. According to Statsguru, 1,565 Youth ODIs have been played all time, so that’s some accomplishment. You may recognise some other names near the top of that list: Yuvraj Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Mayank Agarwal, and Sanju Sampson.
Then, over the weekend, Suryavanshi produced his best effort so far with a blistering 143 (78). He hit an incredible 10 sixes along the way, leading to this rather comical Cricinfo graphic:
I’m (shockingly enough) about to make an incredibly niche reference, but, for fans of athletics, it reminds me of Armand Duplantis, the budget Timothée Chalamet, continually breaking the Pole Vault world record by half an inch at a time so he can keep collecting $100k bonus checks for setting a new world record.
Was Suryavanshi satisfied with a mere 143? Pfft, what do you think? After the game, he had this to say: “I will try to score 200 next time. I'll try to play all 50 overs because the more runs I score, the more my team will benefit.” This kid may not be satisfied until he scores 1,000 in an innings.
It’s not even as though other batters haven’t been performing well in this series, it’s just that, compared to Suryavanshi, they all look a bit pedestrian—like trying to compare Ajinkya Rahane’s batting average to Don Bradman’s. India’s Vihaan Malhotra has also scored 242 runs at 60.5 with a strike rate of 99.18, while England’s Thomas Rew, brother of James Rew, who was recently called up to the Test squad, and Rocky Flintoff, son of Freddy, have scored 231 runs at 77 with a strike rate of 144.4 and 218 runs at 54.5 with a strike rate of 80.7, respectively.
However, again, Vaibhav Suryavanshi has scored 322 runs at an average of 80.5 and a strike rate of 198.76. He’s averaging nearly two runs scored per ball faced. He has hit 27 sixes this series. Rew, with nine, has hit the next most. England U19, combined, have hit 23. Remarkably, he’s hit as many fours (27) as sixes. For comparison, Malhotra, India’s next most successful batter, has hit 30 fours and just four sixes.
I don’t know what else to say, and there’s still another YODI and two more youth Tests to come in the series.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi is going to score One Trillion Runs, which might still prove to be an understatement.
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Good write up man ! Please do keep writing shorter ones like these as well !
Like The Who famously said; The Kids Are Alright.
When I was 14 I could hardly reach the ropes when it was in the slot.