Rajasthan Royals starlet Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who made a blistering 34 runs off 20 balls on his Indian Premier League debut, may be older than his official age of 14.
The 36th match of IPL 2025 witnessed the debut of an Indian prodigy.
Suryavanshi made headlines when he was bought by Rajasthan Royals at the auction for a fee of INR 1 crore. And with captain Sanju Samson sidelined with an injury, Royals gave Suryavanshi his bow on the big stage, asking him to open the batting as an impact sub.
He clobbered India international Shardul Thakur for a six over cover off the first ball he faced, setting the tone for what was set to come. He scored a brisk 34 runs off 20 balls, hitting three sixes and two fours.
Though his side slid to a two-run defeat, Suryavanshi shattered the record for the youngest player to play in the IPL at 14 years and 23 days old, overtaking RCB's Prayas Ray Barman, who was 16 years and 157 days old when he debuted in the 2019 edition.
Suryavanshi has already made his first-class debut, for Bihar against Mumbai in the Ranji trophy. He has also already represented India at the Under-19 Asia Cup and against Australia A, cracking a century against Australia Under-19 in a four-day game.
However, there are some doubts concerning his age. In an interview from 2023 which has since resurfaced, Suryavanshi mentioned to the interviewer that he would turn 14 on September 27, 2023. This would mean that Suryavanshi is older by over a year than the age mentioned in the official records.
Still, assuming that he was born on September 27, 2009, it would mean that he was 15 years and 202 days old when he made his debut for Rajasthan, which would still make him the youngest player to play in the IPL.
