Fourteen-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi makes landfall in Jaipur, stuns everyone!

The unmistakable impression from the bundle of talent Suryavanshi of the Rajasthan Royals is that he belongs to a different breed of young cricketers of the modern day

HYDERABAD: The smiles all around, words of appreciation from almost everyone at the venue said it all. A future star has clearly emerged on the horizon – Vaibhav Suryavanshi.

Well, the unmistakable impression from the bundle of talent Suryavanshi of the Rajasthan Royals is that he belongs to a different breed of exciting young cricketers of the modern day.

There have been doubts about his age, which were cleared by the BCCI at the right time. But no one dared to question his class or the potential to explode.

And, the 14-year-old Suryavanshi chose one of the biggest platforms in the world of cricket against Gujarat Giants in the IPL league match at Jaipur on Monday night to make an emphatic statement that he has well and truly arrived on the big stage against a line-up which has stars who have proven their class at the highest level.

For sure, the critics might not be tempted to dismiss Suryvanshi’s knock as one of those one-off assaults, for the intent and the way this young batter from Bihar went about his task was just spell-binding.

The way he took on one of India’s most successful fast bowlers, Ishant Sharma, with over 100 Test matches, was a joy to behold and also the way this young batter can take the seasoned campaigner, defying his age.

The scoring sequence is 6,6,4, 0,6, 1,1,4 (28 runs) in the fourth over.

One of the most striking features of Suryavanshi’s batting has been the way he made those subtle adjustments – both against pace and spin-even as the bowlers erred quite often in bowling to his strength – giving him the whip to essay those stunning sixes between mid-wicket and fine-leg.

Afghanistan’s pacer Karim Janat would not hesitate to forget the rough treatment as early as possible after being hit all over – 6, 4, 6, 4, 4, 6 (30 runs) – in the 10th over.

And the icing on the cake was when Suryavanshi pulled one of the most dreaded leg-spinners of the modern era and Gujarat Titans stand-in captain Rashid Khan over the fence to reach what has been a truly scintillating century in the 11th over.

No doubt, a beauty of a yorker from pacer Prasidh Krishna was needed to see the back of Suryavanshi (101, 36b, 7×4, 11×6) but by then it was well and truly a Rajasthan Royals show thanks to this diminutive genius’ brilliance.