Bihar youngster Vaibhav Suryavanshi, a left-hand top-order batter, has become the youngest player to earn an IPL deal, worth INR 1.10 crore (US$0.13 million approx.), from Rajasthan Royals (RR).
Suryavanshi, all of 13 years and 243 days on the day he got his maiden IPL contract, has already played for India Under-19 and scored a century opening the batting against Australia Under-19 in a four-day game in Chennai less than two months ago.
Bids for Suryavanshi started at his base price of INR 30 lakh and RR and Delhi Capitals (DC) were soon involved in the bidding battle, which eventually went RR's way.
"He's been to our high performance center in Nagpur, he had trials there and really impressed our coaching set-up there," RR CEO Jake Lush McCrum said after the auction ended. "He's an incredible talent and of course you got to have the confidence so he can step up to the IPL level. So lots of work will go in in the coming months to continue to develop him but hell of a talent and we're really excited to have him as part of the franchise."
Suryavanshi, who hails from Samastipur, a city about 100 kilometres north-east from Patna, has featured in five Ranji Trophy games since his first-class debut against Mumbai earlier this year and is currently playing T20s in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Bihar. He recently made his T20 debut against Rajasthan, on November 23.
The highlight of his career so far is the century against Australia U-19, which came off just 58 balls, before he fell for 104. That knock made Suryavanshi the youngest player - at 13 years and 187 days - to score a century in youth cricket, breaking the previous record of 14 years and 241 days held by Bangladesh's current captain Najmul Hossain Shanto.
Suryavanshi also has a triple-century to his name - an unbeaten 332 - in an U-19 tournament in Bihar, the Randhir Verma Tournament. He idolises Brian Lara and consults former India opener Wasim Jaffer about his game from time to time - they had first met during an U-19 white-ball tournament in Bangladesh in November 2023.
His formal coach, though, is his father Sanjeev Suryavanshi. Sanjeev was a cricketer, too, but when he couldn't make it to the higher levels, he turned to coaching, and began working with Vaibhav once he showed an interest in playing the game seriously.