Kumar Siddhartha, Pune
13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi wrote history by becoming the quickest Indian to score a hundred in the U19 Tests. Batting for India in the first innings of the ongoing Test match against Australia, Chennai: When Vaibhav reached his century off just 58 balls Tuesday, he was eventually run out for 104. It was an innings with 14 boundaries and four sixes, making him one of the young talents in Indian cricket.
While it is the fastest hundred by an Indian in U19 Tests for Vaibhav, still it remains the second fastest century overall in the history of U19 cricket. England’s Moeen Ali, though, remains the record holder for the fastest century in U19 – having scored his hundred off 56 deliveries in 2005. Though two balls have separated Vaibhav from Moeen’s record, his knock has attracted wide attention as he showed aggressive and fearless batting skills.
Vaibhav’s career-best knock came during India U19’s reply to the first innings of the Test, the opening of two youth Test matches for the teams. His blazing hundred proved to be an important contribution to help India seize the initiative in the match as the team continued to uphold the domination against Australia. India had already come out on top of the three-match U19 ODI series against Australia comprehensively with a 3-0 in Puducherry.
Vaibhav’s meteoric rise will also owe to his father, Sanjeev Suryavanshi, whose role was crucial in nurturing his son’s talent. “I was a cricket tragic myself. But in Bihar, let alone cricket, there was no scope for any sport.” an interview with Indian Express read that, Sanjeev. I came to Mumbai at 19 and just did random jobs. Those days, my off days were spent watching kids play cricket at Oval Maidan. That is when I decided I would make my children cricketers,” Sanjeev said, speaking of his journey and the sacrifices he had to make for Vaibhav’s career.
Having completed a century and with a fine track record in Indian cricket, Vaibhav’s future in the sport seems notable as he keeps going ahead with significant milestones at a remarkably young age.