Vaibhav, who was 13 years and eight months old when he was bought by the Rajasthan Royals for Rs 1.10 crore on the second and last day of the IPL mega auction in Jeddah, became the youngest cricket player ever selected by a team.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi, a left-handed top-order batsman from Bihar, has become the youngest player to sign an IPL contract with the Rajasthan Royals (RR) for INR 1.10 crore (about. US$0.13 million).
Suryavanshi, who was 13 years and 243 days old when he signed his first IPL contract, has already played for India Under-19, scoring a century opening the batting against Australia Under-19 in a four-day game in Chennai less than two months ago.Bids for Suryavanshi began at his base price of INR 30 lakh, and RR and Delhi Capitals (DC) were quickly embroiled in the bidding war, which eventually went in RR’s favor.
“He’s been to our high performance center in Nagpur, where he had trials and really impressed our coaching staff,” RR CEO Jake Lush McCrum said after the bidding concluded. “He’s an amazing talent, and you’ve got to believe he can make it to the IPL level. So a lot of work will be done in the coming months to continue to develop him, but he’s a fantastic talent, and we’re thrilled to have him as part of the franchise.”
Suryavanshi, who is from Samastipur, a city around 100 kilometres northeast of Patna, has played five Ranji Trophy games since his first-class debut against Mumbai earlier this year and is presently playing T20s for Bihar in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He recently made his T20 debut against Rajasthan on November 23.
The highlight of his career thus far has been his century against Australia U-19, which came off just 58 balls before he fell for 104. Suryavanshi became the youngest player in youth cricket to hit a century, at 13 years and 187 days, shattering the previous record of 14 years and 241 days held by Bangladesh’s current captain, Najmul Hossain Shanto.Additionally, Suryavanshi has a triple-century—an undefeated 332—in the Randhir Verma Tournament, a U-19 competition held in Bihar. He looks up to Brian Lara and occasionally seeks advice from former India opener Wasim Jaffer over his style of play. The two met in November 2023 while playing in a U-19 white-ball event in Bangladesh.
However, his father, Sanjeev Suryavanshi, is his official coach. Sanjeev was also a cricket player, but he switched to teaching after failing to advance to the upper levels. He started working with Vaibhav after the latter expressed a desire to take the game seriously.
