Rajasthan Royals continued their tryst with investing in promising youngsters signing teenage prodigy Vaibhav Suryavanshi for INR 1.1 crores during the Indian Premier League 2025 mega auction in Jeddah on Monday.
All of 13 years old, Suryavanshi created a flutter in the cricketing fraternity when he became the youngest player ever to register for an IPL auction. Starting at a base price of INR 30 lakhs, the Royals engaged in a brief bidding war with Delhi Capitals before handing a maiden IPL contract to the left-handed batter.
In the process, the Royals continued their tradition of putting their weight behind young and budding cricketers to find their feet in their cricketing careers.
Ravindra Jadeja making his IPL debut, at the age of 19, under Shane Warne in 2008, and Sanju Samson making his IPL bow under Rahul Dravid in 2013 at the age of 18 are some of those instances. Both players built successful careers with Samson going to become the most-capped player and highest run-getter for the Royals.
Suryavanshi finds himself in safe hands under the Royals Head Coach Rahul Dravid, who has been at the forefront of developing young cricketers at the Royals and in the India junior and ‘A’ sides.
The batter from Bihar created ripples in the cricketing circles when he scored 104 off just 62 balls for India Under-19 in the first of the two-match youth Test series against Australia U-19 in Chennai last month.
With that knock, Suryavanshi became the youngest player to score a century in youth cricket at 13 years and 188 days going past the previous record of 14 years and 241 days held by Najmul Hossain Shanto of Bangladesh. Suryavanshi’s swashbuckling century, which came off just 58 balls, was only the second-fastest at this level behind Moeen Ali’s 56-ball knock.
In January earlier this year, the cricketer from Samastipur, Bihar, became the proud owner of yet another record when he made his Ranji Trophy debut in a match against Mumbai at the age of 12 (12 years and 284 days).
He went past legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh who both were introduced to the tournament at the age of 15.
After being part of the Bihar side in five Ranji Trophy matches, Suryavanshi made his T20 debut against Rajasthan in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 tournament.
Photo Credit: ESPNcricinfo
