Vaibhav Sooryavanshi & PM Narendra Modi (PTI) As the year drew to a close, Indian cricket found itself sharing space with an unfamiliar breed of headlines. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who is three months away from his 15th birthday, has been named the recipient of the Prime Minister’s National Award for Children, the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar. It is the country’s highest civilian honor for successful players between the ages of five and 18. No cricketer had ever received it before. That was the only thing that set him apart. The fact that he now sits alongside names like chess stars R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali has only underlined how extraordinary his rise has been.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi (@NarendraModi/YT via PTI Photo)
The award felt like a natural end to a year in which Sooryavanshi did much more than chase records. He rewrote the expectations of age, time and readiness. In 2025, no Indian cricketer was searched more on Google. Not Virat Kohli. Not Rohit Sharma. Instead, it was a left-handed schoolboy from Motihari in Bihar whose name kept popping up on screens across the country. What started as curiosity soon turned into understanding. This wasn’t noise built on novelty. It was performance-driven attention.
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The defining moment happened quietly, without television cameras or prime-time buildup. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Arunachal Pradesh, Sooryavanshi produced an innings that seemed to belong to another era. He smashed 190 off just 84 balls, hitting 226.19, 16 fours and 15 sixes. The knock made him the youngest player in List A cricket history to score a century, breaking the 39-year-old world record previously held by Pakistan’s Zahoor Elahi. Still, it was no sudden eruption. Months earlier, on April 28 in Jaipur, Sooryavanshi announced himself on the IPL stage with startling clarity. At 14 years and 32 days, he scored a breathtaking 101 off 38 balls against Gujarat Titans. It was fearless, explosive and unapologetic. Seven fours, eleven sixes and a total of maximums that equaled Murali Vijay’s IPL record. At 14, he also became the youngest player ever to score a T20 century. Even his last appearance in the IPL season was scripted. Against Chennai Super Kings, he hit 57 off 33 balls to seal the win for Rajasthan. Broadcasters framed it as “Gen Bold vs Gen Gold”. By this time the identity of the poster boy was clear. Records followed him everywhere. He made his Ranji Trophy debut at 12 years and 284 days, becoming India’s youngest first-class cricketer. At just 13, he bagged an IPL contract worth Rs 1.1 crore, the youngest player ever to be bought in an auction. His impact went beyond domestic cricket. Against Australia Under-19, he hit 104 off 58 balls, the fastest under-19 by an Indian and the second fastest in the world. He remained central to India’s batting story throughout the successive Under-19 Asia Cups. In 2025, he went further, scoring a gutsy 144 off 42 balls against the UAE, an innings that included a 32-ball hundred. Indian cricket has known miracles before. However, very few of them spent a whole year forming around themselves before finishing school. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi did just that.
