A boy among men, but elite nevertheless

Bengaluru: Vaibhav Suryavanshi's age might be cause for consternation, maybe even suspicion. His ability, not so much.

Since becoming one of the youngest Indian players to make the first-class cut at 12 years and 284 days for Bihar, Vaibhav has been skiing through age-group cricket. 

Still, there were some questions asked by those in the system for how could a now-13-year-old be so good that he would be called up for India's Under-19 team for the unofficial four-day 'Test' against Australia in Chennai. 

Well, the naysayers have to quieten up for the left-hander with a penchant for scoring quick belted a century from 58 balls on Tuesday to become the fastest to the mark for the age group and in the format.

"I am a fan of Brian Lara, I like his style of batting," says Vaibhav. "I am not an aggressive player normally, I wanted to construct an innings only, but because they attacked and the field set up was such that I found opportunities to score. My plan is always simple: 'if the ball is there to be hit, hit it. Don’t be in two minds'."

Perhaps this clarity in thought comes from all the powers which have steered Vaibhav solely in the direction of cricket. 

Vaibhav's journey began on the streets of Samastipur in Darbhanga (Bihar), and was fluent enough in his movement to inspire confidence in father Sanjeev Suryavanshi to take the then five-year-old more seriously.

"I moved to Mumbai and did odd-jobs, even worked as a bouncer, and at public toilets to realise a dream of becoming a cricketer," he tells DH. "I couldn't do it so I came back home and we have enough farmland to live on. I just knew I would make a cricketer out of my son and daughter when I had them." 

"I knew enough cricket to teach him a bit early on and then I put him in a cricket camp when he turned seven. Immediately we knew he had something a lot of people in his age group didn't have: fearlessness.

"He was always talking about how he wanted to take on the best bowlers even at that age. In fact, I spoke to him before this match and told him to take it easy. I spoke to him after the first day's play and he told me that they were sledging him so he wanted to shut them up. He barely gave them a chance. That's just how he is built."

Manish Ojha, who has been Vaibhav's coach at GenNex Cricket academy in Patna since he walked in five or so years ago, noted much the same, but said that this free-flowing style was a product of work and not something which came naturally. 

"From the time I saw him when he was 8-years-old, I knew he had the skills but at the time he was too small to be able to run between wickets," says Ojha. "We had to keep him on stand-by because of that but as he got bigger, and we bespoke his training programme, he got good, fast."

"See, the problem with someone so young is that he was too small for the side-arm and the bowling machine so we would have to do throwdowns by hand and he would face aruond 500 balls in every session. As for his aggressive style, once he got a grip of his ability, he was able to extend his hands a bit more and clear boundaries easily."

"He has always been 3-4 years ahead of his peers so this transition to the U-19 side is easy for him," he adds. 

The coach isn't exaggerating either. From aceing at the Cooch Behar Trophy to his success in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy, Vaibhav has looked a serious prospect all along. Naturally this meant he would be fast-tracked to the U-19 'B' team for the quadrangular home series against England and Bangladesh. 

Soon after, the call from the senior selection committee in Bihar to slot in the boy. His two games have only yielded 31 runs, but remember, he is only 13-years-old. 

That said, watching him at the crease during his knock against Australia would make you think otherwise.