13-year-old cricketer Suryavanshi poised to become India's newest T20 batting sensation

NEW DELHI, India — Bihar's 13-year-old cricket prodigy has caught the attention of Rajasthan Royals, who secured the young batting sensation for $130,000 during the highly anticipated mega auction of the Indian Premier League. With this signing, the young talent from India's northern state could potentially become the next big thing in T20 cricket.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi came to the limelight last month after he scored a century against Australia's Under-19 team off just 58 balls before he got out for 104.

At the age of 13 years and 187 days, Suryavanshi broke the record of Bangladesh’s present test captain Najmul Hasan Shanto, who at the age of 14 years and 241 days held the previous record of scoring a century at youth level.

Delhi Capitals also showed plenty of interest when the bid for Suryavanshi started at his base price of $35,500 before Rajasthan eventually bought him.

“He’s been to our high performance center in Nagpur, he had trials there and really impressed our coaching set-up there,” Rajasthan’s chief executive officer Jake Lush McCrum said after the auction ended in Saudi Arabia on Monday. “He’s an incredible talent and of course you've got to have the confidence so he can step up to the IPL level.”

McCrum described Suryavanshi as a “hell of a talent” and hoped lots of work will go into the coming months before the IPL begins on March 14 with former Indian captain Rahul Dravid among the coaching panel of the franchise.

Suryavanshi idolizes legendary West Indian batter Brian Lara and often gets tips from former Indian batter Wasim Jaffer, with whom he met during an Under-19 tournament in Bangladesh last year.

His father Sanjiv Suryavanshi is his coach and has worked with him since an an early age once his son started to show interest in the game.

“He is not just my son now, but entire Bihar’s son," the elder Suryavanshi told Press Trust of India. "My son has worked hard.”

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