Jaipur, Apr 29 (UNI) History was made in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday when 14-year-old sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi smashed a sensational century for the Rajasthan Royals.
Suryavanshi became the youngest player to score a T20 century with his innings of 101 in an eight-wicket victory for the Royals against Gujarat Titans, with the left-hander eclipsing the previous record held by Maharashtra’s Vijay Zol, who had scored a hundred at the age of 18 years and 118 days.
The teenager smashed seven fours and 11 sixes during his 38-ball innings, with his century coming from just 35 deliveries and the second fastest in the history of the IPL, only behind Chris Gayle's 30-ball effort.
It was only Suryavanshi's third innings in the IPL, with the opener having impressed earlier in the tournament and catching India legend Ravi Shastri’s eye when he hit his first ball for six and scored 34 against the Lucknow Super Giants.
Shastri spoke glowingly of the bevy of young openers on display in the IPL this year on the latest episode of The ICC Review and admitted he had been in awe of how Suryavanshi had commenced his cricketing career.
"I think the first shot he ever played against Lucknow, that would have taken everyone's breath away," Shastri told host Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review.
"But he's young, just let him play. I would say just let him play a bit because it's at that age, there's bound to be failure as well," Shastri said.
"It's how he handles failure, as people will come up with new things," he said.
Shastri believes bowlers will target Suryavanshi with some short-pitched deliveries in the future and the real test will come with how he responds.
"There'll be lots of short stuff thrown at him the next time he comes out to bat because when you
tonk someone's first ball for six, then you show no mercy," he said.
"Then you don't care whether he's 14 years old or 12 years old or 20 years old," Shastri said.
"The menu is the same that you dish out. So, he'll have to get used to that and once we see him handling that then you can make a proper judgement," he added.
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