Ravichandran Ashwin made his IPL debut 18 years in the past however Vaibhav Suryavanshi is simply 14 years previous!
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 won’t just be remembered for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) lifting their maiden title. Well, a certain 14-year-old made his debut and announced himself by smashing a massive six in his first ball. Vaibhav Suryavanshi startled everyone with his performance for the Rajasthan Royals (RR), including Ravichandran Ashwin who has a thing or two to say about the young prodigy.
Samson & Ashwin in awe of Vaibhav Suryavanshi?
Ashwin recently organised his ‘Kutti Stories’ episode with current RR captain Sanju Samson. The franchise took a huge punt on Suryavanshi at the mega auction, signing him for Rs 1.10 crore. While everyone thought it was one for the future, an injury to Samson himself forced RR to count on Suryavanshi, who didn’t let his franchise down.
Samson started the conversation by telling how he was shocked by Suryavanshi’s quality of shots. The southpaw clubbed Shardul Thakur for a huge six through the off side, facing his maiden delivery. In the next over, he smashed Avesh Khan for one as well.
“When he hit the first ball for a six, I was like, ‘That’s cool…he lucked out’. But then he just went on and on and on. Wow! The quality of the shots he was hitting shocked me,” Vaibhav’s IPL captain, Sanju Samson, said while speaking on Ashwin’s YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, Ashwin was stunned by the sheer quality of Suryavanshi, who handled Ashwin while facing him for the first time.
During a league stage match against CSK, Suryavanshi clubbed a match-winning 57 off 33, hammering four boundaries and as many sixes.
“Let me tell you a small story, after the Rajasthan vs Chennai match in Delhi, I was talking to Panish (Shetty, RR lead analyst). You also joined us and left. It isn’t just about his (Vaibhav’s) hitting,” Ashwin replied. “I bowled one to him round the stumps and he smacked it through the covers. The next ball, I bowled a slower one. You (Samson) have kept wickets for me for a long time and you know I do that to see if he would go for the big one.”
“I pulled it a bit wide and he (Vaibhav) just waited and gave it a solid shot and the ball went through mid-on for a single. I remember thinking, ‘What the hell, man… Where has this guy come from?” Ashwin added.“He (Vaibhav) was 14 and I made my IPL debut 18 years ago. He was not even in the imagination of his parents… That was quite crazy. I saw Jos Buttler talking to Jofra Archer about it. About how it was to get smashed around by a 14-year-old in the nets,” Ashwin said.
Editor’s Pick
Prime Tales
