Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has already turned heads with his exploits in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and at the U19 World Cup, among almost every other competition that he has played in. Sooryavanshi has now said that his biggest target for this year is winning the IPL with the Rajasthan Royals, while also harbouring a desire to go for Chris Gayle’s record for the highest score in the history of the league.
The 14-year-old was on Sunday asked to choose between three individual records that he would like to break during the BCCI’s Naman Awards: hit six sixes in an over, breaking Gayle’s 175-run record or scoring the fastest IPL century. “Breaking that 175 record,” he said. Gayle’s astonishing knock had come in the 2013 season of the IPL while playing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against the now-defunct Pune Warriors. The West Indies great played through the innings and finished with a score of 175 in 66 balls, his knock peppered with 13 fours and 17 sixes. It remains the highest score by any batter in men’s T20Is.
Gayle had also set the record for the fastest IPL century in that innings, having got there in just 30 balls. Sooryavanshi, quite incredibly, nearly broke that record in his first season in the IPL last year. He smashed a 35-ball century against the Gujarat Titans and falling on 101 off 38 balls. It became the fastest century scored by an Indian in the IPL, breaking Yusuf Pathan’s record of 37 deliveries that he had set for Rajasthan Royals against the Mumbai Indians in the 2010 IPL.
Sooryavanshi was the youngest player to make his debut in the IPL last year. He has since gone on to play a stellar role in India’s U19 World Cup triumph earlier this year. Sooryavanshi was India’s highest run scorer in the tournament and the second highest overall, smashing 439 runs in seven matches at an astonishing strike rate of 169.49 and average of 62.71. He had missed out on getting to three figures throughout the tournament but then saved the best for the last, blasting 175 in 80 balls against England in the final.
