In his recently completed first full IPL campaign, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi finished as the top run scorer, hit a record number of sixes and was voted the most valuable player. Among his prizes was a car, which, of course, he is not legally eligible to drive for three years.
Now aged 15, likened to legend Sachin Tendulkar and dubbed by sponsors, fans and pundits alike as the sport’s ‘Next Big Thing’, Sooryavanshi is going international.
On Friday, the left-handed opening batter was supposed to become the youngest ever player in India’s senior men’s team – 15 years, 91 days – to represent India in the first of two T20 internationals against Ireland in Belfast. However, the wunderwind will have to wai this turn as the visitors decided against including him in the playing eleven for the series opener.
Sooryavanshi hails from Tajpur, a small agricultural town in the northern state of Bihar between the Ganges River and the border of Nepal.
His father, Sanjiv, was a cricket aficionado and he gave his middle son of three a bat at the age of four. By the time he entered adolescence, Vaibhav had been making early morning trips to a club around 100km away and his prodigious talent was there for everyone to see, especially the way he hit the ball clean as a whistle with such a high back-lift that it reminded onlookers of West Indies great Brian Lara.
