Test Match Special - 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi stuns the IPL

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

After 14 year old Vaibhav Suryavanshi smashed record after record en route to his 35-ball hundred, Henry Moeran is joined by former IPL batter Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and commentator Matt Floyd to find out more about the teenage superstar. We learn more about his back story, how he’s been managed, and how Rajasthan Royals – and Indian Cricket – can look after and nurture such a precocious talent.

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you're getting a fair exchange rate with no extra markups. Be smart. Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit Wise.com. T's and C's and C's Apply. podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Hello, this is Henry Moran. Welcome to a special TMS podcast because, quite simply, we couldn't let an amazing moment in cricketing history pass by without reflecting upon it. April 28th, 2025, the day a star was born in the Indian Premier League. Deep Midwiggard over him, a hundred of just 35 born.

It's the 14-year-old boy who set the Pink City alight. And have a look at this crowd. Have a look at Rahul Dravid. The wheelchair is gone, disappears. He's up on his feet as well. As is everyone else in the dugout. My word. Fabulous entertainment.

This was an innings of the most outrageous impudence, record-breaking hitting, and the hundred runs from just 35 balls. Forget Vibavsyria Vanchi's age for just a minute. Had anyone played that knock, we'd have been frankly astonished. This is the story of a boy who has lived out the dreams of every young cricketer, except he's done it on the biggest domestic stage of them all. The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.

Well, with me to discuss at innings of ridiculous skills, age-defying timing and breathtaking ability. Is the cricket broadcaster Matt Kabeer Floyd and also former IPL star Abyshech, John, Wala. Aveshik, to you, first of all, you've seen more IPL cricket than most. You've seen more cricket than most. What's your reaction to this extraordinary story?

To be honest, it took me a while to actually believe that that happened. I thought I was daydreaming when I was that in Inns, because it was ridiculous. And I would say probably the best or the greatest knock in the history of IPL ever been played. We have seen some unbelievable knocks over the years, a 30 ball, 100 from Chris Gale, a 36 ball, 100 from Yusuf Patan

when I was at the other end, playing for Rajasthan Royals. And for him to do that for that team again is super, super special. But it's just ridiculous. And, you know, there was a lot of chat about him being not 14 or 15 or 16. I don't care what age you'd.

want him to be or whatever age he's at, to play an innings of that manner in your first ever IPL, to me he looks, I would say, 14, 14 and a half, 15 at max. But to have that audacity to play that sort of a knock

against the world beaters, the best bowlers in the world cricket, you've got Mama Siraz, you've got the best T20 bowler in the history in the last 10, 15 years, Rashid Khan, and to do that against them, I mean, I don't think anybody has got words. Just to go through the raw stats of it all, Matt, which is worth doing because this is absolutely groundbreaking.

14 years, 32 days, 35 balls to score the 100, second fastest in IPL history, the fastest by an Indian in Indian Premier League history. The highest percentage of runs scored in a T20-100 came from boundaries. of those runs come in poundries, 11-6s. Every metric you look at, it just boggles the mind. And the youngest player ever to score a T-20-100 anywhere around the world. Absolutely incredible. And I guess there's two elements to this. There's the mental and the physical element, and both of them are just mind-boggling when you think about it.

On the mental side, you think about all of the pressure that you're under, all of the eyes that are on you, knowing that you are the youngest player ever drafted into the IPL. He was 13 when he was picked up, actually. So he's only just turned 14. That doesn't mean that he's going to have a long career. We saw a young leg spinner. Is it Ray Barman, who was 16, he was the previous youngest player who made his debut just a few years ago, and he hasn't really kicked on.

He's almost been forgotten about largely. So there's no guarantee that you're going to carry on, have a great career. from that, if you don't do well, you could be forgotten about it. You could be back into the lower leagues, the lesser leagues, not playing in the IPL, trying to get back in. So a lot of pressure on him to perform, even though he is young, it's the biggest stage, it's the hardest T20 tournament in the world. And the physical side of it is even more impressive. If you take yourself back to when you were 14, you know, you and I, Henry, playing rubbish club cricket. And I remember when I was 14 and I went and played men's cricket for the first time, everything seems so fast.

You've got a guy bowling at 65 and you're thinking, oh my goodness me. It seems like 85, you know, because you're not used to the pace of the game. You certainly can't hit any big sixes. You don't have the power that the men have. Whereas he yesterday just turned up, didn't look like he was hurried by 85 mile an hour bowling. And as Abyshek says, this is probably the best bowling attack in the competition. Let me go through that bowling attack. They started with Rashid, Khan, Mohamed Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Washington Sundar, Prasid Krishna, Karim Janat and Arsikashore, 694 international caps between them. That's the best attack. I think that's the most balanced attack. Yeah, I would say so. I would think it's one of the best bowling attacks in the competition and to do against them.

And you're absolutely right. To have that sort of a power at the age of 14, it's unheard of. And you speak to majority of the 14-year-old in any country in the world. they probably would like a couple of sports but they haven't still made up their mind with sport they want to take up on and they're not sure how they're going to go about it but for him to be so ready

I think a lot of credit goes to his parents a lot of credit goes to the coaches who has worked immensely hard I think being in that setup being picked showing that confidence on a 13 year old I think they've done a wonderful job Rajasthan Royals always had that knack

of picking really really young talented Indians domestic crickers but I think a lot of work has been done by Rahul Dravid and the coaching staff Vikram Rathod who is the batting coach and also the clarity which has been given to him the freedom which has been given to him we don't often talk about it

I think that has happened a lot more in the modern day cricket where there's a lot of freedom given to young cricketers and also they are fearless they know that this is an opportunity they're going to grab if they can't somebody else will come and replace them so fearless and that's the brand of cricket now all of the Indian youngsters play

and which is great to see. What he has spoken about, inevitably he's not really be interviewed much because he's 14. I mean, why would he have been? But he said, my plan's always simple. The ball's there to be here. I hit it.

I don't, the key is not to be in a double mind. And you're talking, you know, generation since there's been this sort of excitement, maybe Satin against Abdul Qadir in those early days, those four sixes in and over, that sort of thing. Satchen, meanwhile, actually is tweeted. Vibeard's fearless approach,

bat speed picking the length early transferring the energy behind the ball was the recipe behind a fabulous innings end result 101 of 38 balls well played well played indeed and not bad praise

I mean this is again it is school boys dream stuff well when you think of all the child prodigies that we've seen in cricket and there have been a few over the years such in is obviously the big one the obvious one probably the greatest child prodigy of all time

He made his debut, I think, for Mumbai when he was 15. He made his test debut at 16. I think he might have even got a first class 100 on debut. Abashchak's nodding. Yeah, he got 100 on debut for Mumbai. He obviously came over to England when he was 17. Remember him taking that amazing one-handed catch at Lords running in off the boundary? And he was away and he became the greatest batter of all time.

But this is up there with his achievements at that age. when you think of all the other youngsters that have come in and done it. 14 is an extraordinarily young age. If you're 16, Rashid Khan came in at 16. He looked a lot older. You hear of 16-year-olds coming in and sometimes being freaks and doing well. But 14, there's a big difference, I think, between 14 and 60. You do a lot of growing, mentally and physically.

And if you look at his face, he's got a baby face. He doesn't even have a beard coming up yet. So, you know, he is, whatever the age is, he is a very, very young cricket. And also to have that maturity, Henry, you know, we often talk about batters mature slightly later in their career. And if you look at a maturity and the clarity, to get that clarity and maturity at the age of 14, I heard him speaking about the innings in an interview. He looks so calm and collective. You put a mic in front of any 14-year-old in that atmosphere and being interviewed by the likes of Harsha Bhoaglia or Ravi Sarsu, you'll be panicking. he handled himself like a pro at the age of 14.

It's just ridiculous. Talk to me about what his domestic cricketing experiences would have been. We'll get on to his background and his family shortly. But what about you're a young cricketer with a bit of talent in India? What sort of cricket are you playing? I mean, you're playing your age group cricket. I think he played under 90 in India because everyone knows what sort of a talent he's got. And I heard an interview from Sabah Karim.

He said, you know, we have all been amazed when we saw such an... the first time he saw Sachin growing up with them because they come from the same era, they all played together. He said, we knew something special about him. He's one of a lifetime. You wouldn't see many suchins ever.

But he said, when I saw that kid for the first time because Sabha Karim comes from Bihar, he played his cricket from Bihar, then eventually came and played for Bengal in India and test cricket. He said, when I saw him first,

I thought he was even more special. And, you know, that's a huge comment from any Indian cricket. where you put him in a pedestrian above Sachin, he's got to be something so, so special. And we have seen that with that innings. Look, there's a long, long way to go for him. And as Matt said very correctly,

this doesn't determine that he's going to be one of the great cricketers from India. But he's got all the potential. I just hope that he's been guided well. He's got the right people around him. That's so important. Well, Rao Dravid's a good person to have. Very good, very level-headed.

He obviously really believed in him because he chucked him in there. You know, he chucked him in at the deep end and he swam like Michael Phelps, really. You can easily sink like that. Replacing Sanju Sampson, he was the only other opener in the squad. So they put him in.

They could have easily used a more experienced batter and pushed them up to open, but they must have really believed in him. Abyshechek's right. Now it's going to change, isn't it? Because now everyone is watching every innings of his from here. And we can't expect too much. We can't expect him to do that every innings.

We can't even expect him to do half of that every year. Absolutely not. And you're absolutely right. I think the pressure will mount now. All the sponsors, he's the new superstar in Indian cricket. How does he handle the money? How does he handle the pressure of sponsorships? How does he handle his cricket?

Does he still want to play for India? Does he want to play test cricket? What are his goals? There's so many question marks. But you're absolutely right. Buying a 13-year-old, Henry, is something a gimmick, right? You can do it for marketing purposes. Like, oh, look, we believe in a 13-year-old.

year old, we have bought him, and we will groom him for the next couple of years, and eventually play him when he's 16, 17. But to throw him at the deep end at the age of 14, and then for him to come out there and perform the way he has, I mean, his credit goes to everyone, right? It's the team management first for picking him and then for him doing what he did. The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. In terms of his early life, born in village in Chajpur block in the Samatsdapur district in Bihar in India. And so he's not been growing up in a big metropolis. He's not sort of in amongst the cricketing academies early on,

coached by his father until he moved to the cricket academy in his local city at the age of nine. But this is a kid that was born the month before India lifted the 2011 World Cup. Something in terms of my reference point feels like yesterday. And the names I was looking up when all of this was happening. Jimmy Anderson had played 55 test matches by this point, was around about 28 years old. Wayne Rooney was in his mid-20s. Theo Walcott, who's still the benchmark of young athletes in my mind,

was 22 when he was born. I mean, this is crazy talk. That is crazy. We could have had Jimmy Anderson bowling to Vibub Suravunchi in this tournament. I'd even picked up. Could you imagine that? Jimmy could be his grandfather, let alone his father. Don't tell Jimmy.

No, but also, if you look at it, the amount of players who have played IPL for the last 18 years, the likes of Rohid Virad Dhoni, they have played four more years of IPL than his age. That just defines what a special cricketer he's going to be, and we all hope that he becomes a special cricketer,

not just in this format, in multi-formats for India. And from my end, I just hope that he wants to play test cricket. Well, that is absolutely something that people are discussing Reddit, which is ludicrous, frankly. And, you know, the names of yesteryear, 1983 World Cup winner, Chris Shrikant, has written. At 14, most kids dream and eat ice cream. Viab Sariavanchi delivers a fabulous hundred against one of the contenders for the IPL,

composure class, courage beyond his years. We are witnessing the rise of a phenom. India's next cricketing superstar is here. Now, look, let's just for a moment catch our breath and say, sport more generally is littered with talents that burn brightly and don't necessarily go on to achieve. Pretty sure would be the obvious example in Indian cricket of recent times. And we can't allow the excitement to stifle the talent. That's got to be the key. And that's why people around him have to be so good and so strong and so willing to show patience.

Yeah, there's quite a few, aren't there? Some to lesser degree, to greater degrees. Vinod Campbelly, who was an unbelievable prospect, an unbelievable young player, the guy who batted with Sachin, of course, in the school days, and they broke that record for partnership, which was over 600. He was a couple of years older than Suchin ended up. Playing test cricket, he scored a couple of double hundreds, but never quite fulfilled the talent that he had. He was a brilliant, brilliant player. Hassan Raza, do you remember him? He was 14 when he made his debut for Pakistan in test cricket and ended up only playing seven test matches, I think not really heard of much after that beyond, obviously, cricketing circles. But it definitely,

if we're not careful, there can be too much pressure put on to this guy, too much expectation. I don't think we should be talking about playing for India even just yet. If you think about the T20 side at the moment, you've got Yajashevajasvah, you've got Abhishek Sharma, you've got Sanju Sampson, Koli is still playing. There are so many unbelievable top order players. K.L. Rahul, Rishab Punt. I think personally, they should not really be thinking about him in terms of Indian selection just yet.

Let him have a couple of years minimum of IPL before that's even discussed. Yeah, I don't think they will. I don't think they will look at him playing for India in the next two, three years, maybe longer. Because you've got to let him mature. It was a freak knock. we all know it was an absolute freak knock

some unbelievable hitting there is always an element of luck which you need to play something that special but we have all seen the talent we all know that he's got the talent and now how he matures as a cricketer does the key and how he's been handled that's the key because you look at

when players get their introduction to international cricket Jasprey boomer was 23 when he made his international debut nearly a decade older than this kid and he is a kid let's make no mistake about that and so you do have do temper the excitement with realism about the fact that in 10 years time at 24 he will still in most people's points of reference be a young cricket. Well we were talking earlier weren't we about Emma Raducanu and Emma Radiccanu won the US Open probably before she was ready and that created

this unbelievable expectation now from the public so whatever she does after that in some courses is seen as a little bit of a disappointment whereas in reality she's doing really well for someone of her age. But because she set the bar so high, she's made a bit of a rob for her own back. We don't want that to happen to Suria Vanshi, because now we'll have the same expectations. You know, if he goes out there and gets a 30, it'd be like, okay, well, you know, he didn't do what we were hoping he would do for us to get 100. 30's still a good effort. But he's set the bar so high now. He's going to have to have really good people around him. And I think we all have to just temper our expectations a little bit, because otherwise,

It'll become a bit like Emma Radikarni, who's a very, very good tennis player, but we expect so much from her that it's very hard for her to deliver. Abashet, what about the psychology of the bowlers yesterday? Because this is something that intrigues me about whether, even subconsciously, if you're a fast bowler and you know there's a 14-year-old at the other end, does that scramble you're thinking? Are you thinking, I don't want to be the guy that is bowling bounces at this kid? You know professional cricketers better than I do. what goes through a bowler's mind in that situation? Yeah, I think when you start probably, you are thinking that, you know, let's be a slightly nicer to him than the others.

Let's not bowl a shot delivery. And we discussed this earlier in Lent the last time as well, I think, Henry, that who's going to be the first guy who bowls him a bouncer and hits him on his head, knowing he's a 14-year-old. But at the same time, when they're getting pumped for six down the ground, I think that goes out of the window straight away. Then all they are thinking that, you know, he's good enough. How do we get him out or whatever?

how do we cause all sorts of trouble we can and we saw him handling whatever it was thrown to him they tried everything the bowl shot he pulled them over square leg 30 meters 30 hours into the circle and wherever they bowled whatever they threw at him he had the answer so I don't think I think if there was any doubt in bowler's mind so far it's all gone out of the window now you'll see the bowl is going really hard at him

yes I agree with you I think we'll see more of that we didn't see many short balls did we really there was one lovely pull shot just behind square that went for six. Clearly he loves the leg side as well. So I think a lot of the bowlers maybe the fast bowlers thought, okay, I'm just going to run up and he's 14 and I'm just going to bowl it fast and straight and I'm going to get through his defenses and didn't quite cotton on to the fact that he is ready this guy. He's got the hand eye. He's got a fast bat speed and he just ended up picking up loads of batters, didn't he, into deep

long on, deep midwicket. That is his area. Didn't see many people bowl out. He's got to outside the off stump to him. So I'd imagine in the next game, there'll be a plan. They'll have a meeting about Vibab Suriavanshi. They'll have a plan for him. Might see bowlers trying to go outside the off stump. So people will be wary of him now.

You know, we've seen that so many times in sport, second season syndrome. People figure you out slightly. And in cricketing terms, as a batter, they bowl at you slightly differently, don't they? They'll figure out what the weakness is and they'll try and pick it apart. So it's then, can he learn when they do that?

And it's very hard to do that when you don't have much experience to fall back on. Let's not forget, if in five years time, age 19, he played that knock, you'd say, this is extraordinary from the teenager. So he's got five years to hold his game. We, as a cricketing world, need to show that patience. And Abashik, what I'd be quite interested to know is in India, and we know what cricket is like, and we know the challenges that the top, top stars face in day-to-day life and being able to go down to the shops is not a possibility, say.

What will his life and his family's life be like now compared to what it was six months ago? It's all going to change. And, you know, I feel a bit sad for him in a way that you don't want to live that life when you're 14. Yes, I understand. When you're 23, 24, you need to live in a cocoon. You know that I'm a superstar.

I cannot go to a coffee shop for a coffee. You know, it's okay because you go abroad enough. You're touring with India. you're doing enough stuff. But at the age of 14, he's not going to go out and traveling. Wherever he goes, you're going to go out with his family. So now for him to go out to a shop in India is going to be an absolute nightmare. Because he's become the biggest sensation in India, sport.

Not just cricket, in Indian sport, everyone knows his face. Everyone will be talking about him. And I just hope that, you know, it's not just the cricket fraternity is normal people also gives him a bit of space. They just don't go on top of him wherever they see him. And can that happen? Oh, it will happen. It will happen. He will be mobbed. Wherever he walks now, he'll be moffed. Every airport he goes to, he'll be mobbed. People would be coming from all areas of life to come and take a selfie, take his autograph, or, you know, just bother him.

I just hope that people around him really, really have to be very careful how they handle him. Yeah. And clearly, he has got good people around him at Rajasthan Royals because Rao Dravid is an experienced, caring, wise head who has been there and seen it and done it. And also, I think Henry is not just about him, how he handles the whole fame and money and everything is the parents. Because when you also as a parent come from nothing in India and suddenly you get all this popularity because of your son and all the money starts coming, how do the parents handle themselves, not just him, how the parents handle themselves, that's also very, very important in India. Because we see a lot of times the parents completely losing it as well when that fame comes to their children. Imagine how much he's going to go for in the next auction, right? Well, 100,000. He's not going to be 100,000 next time.

He's going to go for over a million, you would imagine. Even if he doesn't do much for the rest of this tournament. Matt, it's not just about the, I'm not even talking about IPL. The amount of sponsorships he's going to get now, which will be worth a lot more than William at the age of 14. I promise you that. Every company in India is going to go after him now, after that innings. Particularly the toy shops.

Yeah, particularly the toy shops. You know, it's, we are talking in crazy terms. This is the point. We're not talking about, you know, he's going to be selling products for kids. He is one. Sponsored by a pencil case company. Do you know what I mean? I mean, will he continue his education?

I mean, all these questions that you've got to hope that there is enough of a well-trodden path from previous experiences that he gets guided correctly. And because what we want to see is this phenomenal talent flourish. And if you love cricket and you love sport, you love these stories, you want to see something amazing happen. We've seen something amazing happen. But we want this to be the first chapter, not one star burning bright very, very briefly. That's the key, isn't it? I think that is. I think everyone is worried about that. But again, if you look at the background, the way he has worked hard since the age of seven or eight,

the dedication you have seen not just in him and his parents as well, his mother just sleeping three hours a day to get him ready, waking up at two o'clock and making his food to send him to practice at 5 o'clock, the kind of dedication it requires from the parents and the kind of dedication they have shown, I think they'll be able to handle him properly. And I just hope and pray that he turns out to be something so, so special, not just for Indian cricket, for world cricket. Is this the most exciting cricketing talent we've seen in the last five years, Matt? I think so.

Yes, absolutely. I would say maybe Rashid Khan was the last one, 16 years old, when he burst on to the scene. That was a few years back now. If you think about it, I think what we saw yesterday is one of the most incredible things we've ever seen on a cricket pitch. In sport, arguably. Yeah, in cricket, I would say. Boris Becker possibly in 17 when he won one. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. In terms of sport, there's obviously other options as well. But just in cricket, I would say really, it's in the conversation. It really is because people don't do that sort of thing at 14 years old. it's just physically it is very very hard to do mentally it is very very hard to do and to do the two things

together on the grandest of stages as well it's just unthinkable so yeah i would say he is and now it's very important that his progression is managed and it's not rushed because he's done what emma raducanu did and that he's probably achieved this a bit too young a bit too early in his career. So he's jumped ahead of where he's supposed to be. Now we've got to make sure that the rest of his career, the next few years, is a steady progression and it's not just jumping into something, unless, of course, he carries on at this pace and he hits three more hundreds in the IPL in the next couple of seasons, but that's unlikely. So now the rest of his career needs to be sort of managed at a good pace. He's not rushed into the Indian team. Not everyone jumps on him

and expects him to be, you know, Virac Koli overnight because it will take some time. But yeah, I would say this is the most excited. We've been talking about it with people. I've got friends who don't even like cricket who were asking me about it. Who is this 14-year-old kid? This transcended sport, really. It's transcended boundaries. You know, he's a phenomenon.

That was the word, wasn't it? A phenom. Can't agree more. I think, as I said earlier, that's the best innings. and I've been part of the IPL playing wise and broadcasting wise for the last 15 years and even before that I've been watching IPL

I have never seen anything like this I don't think anybody has this is the best moment in the history of IPL which has happened yesterday amazing what a way to leave it amazing what a way to leave it thank you Abashek thank you Matt and here's what has been said

in the Indian Express from the cricket writer Venkatakrishna If Suria Vanchi'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 sullab toilet on the port of Mumbai, watching young kids play cricket in the story of Maydance, he had one dream to make his kids cricketers. So Vibav would become that kid, and Sanjeev would leave no stone unturned. He would come up with a net facility in their backyard where he would bowl to his son for hours.

With Vibav 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 Vibav, coming from a nondescript village in a state where multiple associations are trying to take control of the game, made it to the limelight. And what limelight it is. An extraordinary story. We hope it is the start of a remarkable cricketing journey. Thank you for listening to this special TMS podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on BBC Sounds so you never miss a thing from BBC Cricket.

It's an extraordinary tale and plenty more to come across what promises to be a brilliant cricketing summer. Thanks for listening. We'll speak to you soon. The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. A new series of Match of the Day top ten is out now only available on BBC Sounds. Join myself, Garrelinika, Alan Shearerererer, Micah Richards

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