Vaibhav: Meet the 13-Year-Old IPL Crorepati

Kolkata: Normally, at 13 years old, most aspiring cricketers would be focused on honing their skills. However, Vaibhav Suryavanshi is not your average young cricketer. He has fast-tracked his way to success, making history as the youngest player ever to secure an IPL contract. Rajasthan Royals snapped him up for a whopping ₹1.10 crore on the second day of the mega auction in Jeddah. This incredible achievement caps off a remarkable year for Vaibhav, who made his Ranji Trophy debut at just 12 years old and followed it up with a century in his under-19 debut in September. Hailing from Samastipur, Bihar, Vaibhav's journey to the top of the cricketing world is nothing short of extraordinary.

Delhi Capitals were in the fray for a while as bidding started at the base price of ₹30 lakh but it came as no surprise that Royals, mentored by Rahul Dravid, got to sign the teenager. Had it not been for Dravid picking the 19-year-old Rishabh Pant for Delhi in 2016, who knows how his IPL career would have panned out. Now at Royals where Yashasvi Jaiswal came in at 18, Dravid has further pushed the envelope by backing a 13-year-old.

The faith is not totally unfounded though. In January, Vaibhav was facing bowlers twice his age on Ranji Trophy debut against Mumbai, but he was unfazed. “Vaibhav told me ‘Papa I was out but I wasn’t afraid’,” his father Sanjeev had told HT. That attitude soon sparked interest. “(VVS) Laxman (now NCA director and U-19 head coach) told me to let him turn 13 and then he would be prepared for the next cycle,” he added. Soon enough, his U-19 debut came against Australia in Chennai where he scored a 62-ball 104 opening the innings in the youth Test.

What makes the boy stand out? A free flowing game for starters, backed by an unflinching belief in his ability to counter fast bowlers. “He was nine or 10 when he used to face local bowlers, pulling and hooking them with aplomb. Thank god he was never injured, plus he is also very fearless,” said Sanjeev, who like most Indian fathers plays a massive role in this story. “I used to play at district level. So the affinity was always there. This is my younger son; at five he started playing with my bat, so I thought why not.”

Till class 3, Vaibhav was a regular at the local school. But once his father was convinced of his career path, he decided to send him only for exams. A few hundreds in the local leagues, and then a double hundred at U-16 level, and the junior selectors at Bihar were convinced Vaibhav had the game to be fast-tracked to the senior level. At the U-19 Vinoo Mankad Trophy last year, Vaibhav aggregated 393 runs in five matches, prompting his Ranji selection. His debut though came in controversial circumstances with two Bihar squads initially named for the game. Then came the hundred against Australia in September, when he was 13 years and 188 days old. And now Vaibhav Suryavanshi has an IPL story many wouldn’t have even dreamt of till Monday.