Vaibhav Suryawanshi's Journey in Cricket

Vaibhav was born on March 27, 2011, in the village of Tajpur in Bihar. Just five days after his birth, India won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 by defeating Sri Lanka in the final. Born into a middle-class family, he began his cricketing journey at the young age of four.

After his son started playing cricket, Sanjeev built a small ground and practice net near their house. When his son turned nine, he enrolled him in an academy in the nearby city of Samastipur. From then on, it became his responsibility to take his son to and from practice. Whenever there was a tournament, it was the father who had to drop him off.

Both time and expenses started increasing. Following his son’s passion for cricket, Sanjeev almost became unemployed. Determined to make his son a cricketer, he even sold their farmland in Motipur. After that, he personally trained his son every morning and evening. He was always ready to coach him whenever Vaibhav felt like playing. Sanjeev recalls that he even made him practice batting in the water.

At the age of 12, Vaibhav scored 400 runs in five matches during the Vinod Makand Trophy (U-19). His performance earned him a spot in India B’s U-19 team in 2023, representing Bihar. In November, he played in a four-team series (India A, India B, Bangladesh, and England U-19) and was selected in the India B squad. In that series, seen as part of the selection process for the ICC U-19 World Cup 2024, he scored 53 and 41 against England, a duck against Bangladesh, and 8 runs in the final against India A.

Following this, he was selected for Bihar’s U-23 and later made it to the Ranji Trophy team. At the age of 12 years and 284 days, he made his Ranji Trophy debut on January 5, 2024, against Mumbai, scoring 19 and 12 runs. In September, during the first Youth Test against Australia in Chennai, he scored 104 runs off 62 balls, hitting 14 fours and 4 sixes. At just 13 years and 188 days old, he became the youngest player to score a century in competitive cricket. He broke the record set by Bangladesh’s Najmul Hossain Shanto, who had scored a century at the age of 14 years and 241 days against Sri Lanka in 2013.

On November 24 and 25, during the mega auction held in Saudi Arabia, Suryawanshi had registered himself with a base price of ₹30 lakhs. A bidding war broke out between Delhi and Rajasthan to acquire him. Prior to the auction, Rajasthan had already invited Vaibhav to their academy in Nagpur for assessment. Impressed by his performance there, Rajasthan had almost finalized their decision to include him in the team. However, Delhi had also caught wind of this and entered the competition during the auction.

At the time of Vaibhav’s name being called, Delhi had picked 18 out of their 25 available slots, while Rajasthan had picked 16 players. Rajasthan had a remaining purse of ₹4 crores, and Delhi had ₹2.75 crores left. As the bidding crossed ₹1 crore, Delhi had to back out due to budget constraints, and Rajasthan successfully signed him for ₹1.10 crores. His auction price generated a lot of buzz and discussion in the cricketing world.

Following this, he was selected for the Indian team in the U-19 Asia Cup, which began in late November 2024 in Dubai. In the tournament, he scored 1 run against Pakistan, 23 against Japan, a blistering 76 off 43 balls (including 3 fours and 6 sixes) against UAE, and a powerful 67 off 36 balls (with 6 fours and 5 sixes) in the semifinal against Sri Lanka—earning him the Player of the Match award. However, in the final against Bangladesh, he scored only 9 runs.

Despite his strong individual performances, his overall showing in the Asia Cup was not enough to secure a spot in the U-19 World Cup squad. Three weeks after returning from the Asia Cup, he was included in Bihar’s squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy (India’s domestic one-day tournament). Apart from a 71-run innings against Baroda, he couldn’t make much of an impact in other matches despite getting consistent opportunities, which led to some pressure on him.

However, at Rajasthan Royals, under the guidance of top-class coaches like Rahul Dravid and Kumar Sangakkara, he worked hard on improving his weaknesses. Initially benched, his breakthrough came when captain Sanju Samson got injured. Vaibhav seized this opportunity and delivered an impressive performance, proving his potential on a global stage.