INTERVIEW
Follow UsIn January 2024, just at the age of 12, Vaibhav Suryavanshi first made headlines when he broke into Bihar’s Ranji Trophy team against Mumbai. When the focus ideally should have been on the 12-year-old, it was instead ‘infamously’ known for Bihar sending two teams to play a Ranji Trophy clash.
Once that died, however, all the focus was on whether Vaibhav was actually 12. But the real story—a journey of a 12-year-old filled with talent pushing through to the top—was lost heavily in all the hullabaloo.
But Vaibhav didn’t let that discourage him. It only motivated him further, scoring runs at every opportunity. One such day was on October 1 (Tuesday), when his efforts made the headlines.
The Samstipur-born smashed a century in just 58 balls against Australia Under-19 while playing for the Indian Under-19 team in a four-day game in Chennai.
At the age of 13, he became the youngest-ever centurion in competitive cricket in the game’s more than 170-year-old history. His century is also the fastest by an Indian at the youth level and second fastest overall behind England’s Moeen Ali.
Cricket.com caught up with his father, Sanjeev Suryavanshi, who is also Vaibhav’s mentor and childhood coach, to understand the development of the 13-year-old prodigy. Here’s the story of Vaibhav’s journey.
There were stories about Ishan Kishan and now there are stories about Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep. These players were born in Bihar, but they never played for Bihar. Yet, they are treated as ‘Bihar ke Lal’ or the son of the soil in almost every news piece.
But if we look, Vaibhav is truly the first real product of Bihar cricket, who has put the state on India’s cricket map after this scintillating century. How did it all start? To ask Vaibhav to pursue cricket at a place where the game remained non-existent in terms of representation at the highest level till 2018?
I used to play cricket myself. I had big ambitions but did not have someone to back me up financially, a mentor, or a guide. When Vaibhav was five years old, I saw him trying to pick up my bat and play with it. This went on for quite some time before I decided to give him personal training.
At my home in Motipur village of Samastipur district in Bihar, I put on nets and started with throwdowns, which I continued for two years straight. I realized that he was good enough to get professional training and got him admitted to Cricket Academy Samastipur under coach Brajesh Jha.
I think he was 9 or 10 years old when the academy started making him play in regional Under-16 and Under-19 tournaments. He scored big runs. I watched a few of his games, and he would pull the ball on the front foot. I was awestruck and then decided to take him to Patna (Bihar’s capital).
We reached Gen-Next academy, run by a former Jharkhand Ranji Player, Manish Ojha. We would travel for three days to Patna, and in the remaining four days, Vaibhav would play in Samastipur.
Travelling all seven days would have been tough. It is a difficult job to be fully devoted to one’s child, especially when you are the lone breadwinner of the family as well. How did you manage?
I would not like to talk about that. For the record, I would just say that I was almost unemployed for the last four and a half years. I did odd jobs at times to take Vaibhav to every place possible and get him the best of the facilities with my limited resources.
When he first played in the Hayman Trophy (Bihar’s top-tier Inter-District senior men’s tournament) and scored over 600 runs, I was sure that even if I had nothing left with me to get him every facility possible, I would make sure he had it.
However, during the Shayamal Sinha (U16 inter-district 40-over tournament in Bihar) Trophy, Vaibhav scored a double ton, making 218 against Muzaffarpur, while his entire team totalled only 289. BCA President Rakesh Tiwary then called him and said that BCA would take care of all his needs.
So, what did BCA do to get Vaibhav going?
Mr Tiwary [Rakesh] got Vaibhav straightaway into the state’s U19 team for the Vinoo Mankad Trophy 2022-23, where he hit 393 runs in five innings at an average of nearly 79. Though Bihar’s performance was not brilliant, Vaibhav smashed three fifties and a hundred to get selected in the U19 Challenger Trophy involving four Indian teams.
He made his way to India B’s squad for the quadrangular Under-19 series, involving two Indian teams (A and B) and a team each from England and Bangladesh.
It was there that Vaibhav hit two fifties, and Mr Tiwary fast-tracked him into the Bihar Ranji team for the 2023-24 season.
Vaibhav is the 4th youngest Indian to play Ranji Trophy at just 12 years of age. But he did not look like himself in the two chances that he got. What transpired?
He got nervous in all the drama that unfolded ahead of Bihar’s first game against Mumbai. There were so many journalists asking so many questions that his focus went down the drain. (Vaibhav played two games against Mumbai and Chhattisgarh, in which he could manage only 31 runs with two ducks in four innings.)
But if you look at how quickly he adapted when he was sent back to the CK Nayudu [Trophy] 2023-24, you would realise that talent is not the problem with my son. He scored two half-centuries–79 and 82 against Mumbai in Mumbai. (He was the second-highest scorer for the Bihar U-23 team with four fifties and a total of 428 runs at an average of 47.56 in the tournament)
If BCA has been so good, does that mean Vaibhav will let go of offers from Jharkhand or Bengal to play there and develop his skills with better facilities?
The situation is not good in Bihar compared to other states. Many people told me not to keep Vaibhav in Bihar. Take him to Jharkhand or Karnataka, they would recommend. But call it my stubbornness or the love for the land that I was determined to make Vaibhav play only for Bihar.
There might be better facilities everywhere else, and people like Ishan Kishan and Anukul Roy (both born in Bihar) have gone on and played for Jharkhand. But I said that someone must play for Bihar despite the challenges.
He was born in Bihar, raised in Bihar and therefore indebted to this land. Just like how we are indebted to our parents for bringing us into this world, similarly, we are indebted to the land where we are born. Serving it and not ditching it for others just because others might be better is what I have taught him. He will play for Bihar and go on to play for India by playing for Bihar only.
We are talking as if he is some senior player having played so much cricket, in reality, he is just 13. Is making it to the U-19 World Cup in 2026 your and Vaibhav’s immediate goal?
Look, the U-19 World Cup, IPL, Ranji Trophy etc, are there, but they are basically ‘means to the end’. And the end is playing for India. That is Vaibhav’s and my biggest dream. The day he wears the senior Indian team’s jersey, I will be satisfied that finally, my devotion has bore fruit.
Playing for India is the biggest dream, but kids these days idolise certain players, wanting to be like them. Who is Vaibhav’s biggest inspiration?
When Vaibhav was very young, I would show him videos of legends like Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh. He did not know them, but seeing them bat the way they did, he was curious to know more about Lara as he too is left-handed. He would ask me questions and want to see more of Lara. So you can say, in a way, Lara is his biggest inspiration.
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