2025 in Review: The Rise of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi As Teenager Takes The Spotlight

The world is changing. AI is the buzzword. Gen Z is redefining culture – in the workplace and beyond. Consumption patterns have evolved rapidly, with new benchmarks set every day. Cricket hasn’t been untouched. A new crop of batting stars, fed on a heavy diet of T20 cricket, has taken centre stage. This new breed doesn’t care for conventional cricketing wisdom, even as purists continue to warn against straying from the basics. There is some merit to those cautions. But this is Gen Z. You can fight it, resist it, but history suggests you won’t stop it from taking charge. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is a prime example of this T20 wave.

The teenager is at an age when his parents should be dictating his bedtime (and they might be, for all you know). Yet

Sooryavanshi has earned the license to defy the curfew. April 19, 2025, marked his first brush with the big boys of international cricket and the first step in earning that right. He dispatched the very first ball of his IPL career – from an international bowler – for a stunning six. A 14-year-old smacking an experienced bowler more than twice his age with disdain in a competition teeming with world-class cricketers.

Let that sink in.

If that left a few commentators searching for words, what followed may have robbed them of their voices altogether. Against Gujarat Titans, facing an attack featuring Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Washington Sundar, among others, Sooryavanshi defied logic to pulverise his way to a gobsmacking 35-ball hundred – an innings that shattered multiple records. This came just days after he became the IPL’s youngest debutant, months after becoming the youngest to land an IPL contract.

Records. It’s a word that has followed him closely since his first-class debut for Bihar in January 2024, when he became one of the youngest Indians to play professional cricket. Since then, he has been relentlessly rewriting the record books in age-group cricket.
Sample this brief list: youngest List A centurion, fastest to 150 in List A cricket, youngest T20 centurion, most sixes in Youth ODI history, fastest Indian to an IPL hundred – and counting. All this before turning 15.

His voracious appetite for runs and his ability to regularly clear boundaries are remarkable given his age. But how does he generate such power?

Blistering bat speed, an unconventional grip, and a powerful downswing allow him to generate brutal force. He’s been bullying bowlers of all kinds for fun.

In a country obsessed with cricket and cricketers, such numbers inevitably make you a star. Sooryavanshi has become one. Few names in recent cricket history have captured the public imagination like him. Most of them, however, earned that status after proving themselves at the international level. Sooryavanshi has come close without having to do so.

It’s unusual – and potentially risky.

Indian cricket history offers cautionary tales. Vinod Kambli’s meteoric rise and rapid decline remains one. More recently, Prithvi Shaw’s struggles underline how fragile early stardom can be when expectations soar.

In the space of eight months, Sooryavanshi has become one of the most closely followed cricketers in the country – and he’s still in his teens. Apparently, his Instagram following doubled – from 6 lakhs to over 1.2 million overnight after that IPL century.

His every move will soon be tracked. His innings already becomes a headline – whether he scores or not. That level of attention usually arrives after years at the international level. For him, it has arrived before he has even settled into domestic cricket.

Talent opens doors; keeping them open requires much more. Ensuring Sooryavanshi stays on track will be a collective responsibility.

The role of the BCCI, his coaches, and his family will be vital in the years ahead. Managing expectations, insulating him from noise, keeping him grounded, and allowing technical growth without panic will be crucial. Lean phases will come – they always do. Nobody is immune; ask Virat Kohli.

For now, Sooryavanshi is a white-ball sensation, a child prodigy. His ability to dominate from ball one and clear boundaries with surreal ease makes him tailor-made for the ever-evolving limited-overs game. Red-ball cricket, though, remains a work in progress. He has shown flashes, but patience and shot selection still need refinement.

He deserves to enjoy the adulation, but the harder test will come when opponents dissect his technique and probe his weaknesses. How he responds will define his career, as it has for many before him.

And how Sooryavanshi – or rather, those around him – plot his next moves could take him to infinity and beyond.