Historic feat: Sooryavanshi becomes youngest to represent India
Boy wonder Sooryavanshi became India’s youngest international debutant at 15 years and 99 days, breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record, but his debut did not go as planned as he managed 14 off 10 balls, including two sixes.
At 16 years and 205 days, Tendulkar walked into the nation’s collective consciousness with a game that was built on solid defence and artistic offence, defined by Mumbai’s school of ‘Khadoos’ batsmanship. At 15 years and 99 days, Sooryavanshi seems unfamiliar with the concept of defence, his style tailor-made for the demands of cricket’s slam-bang T20 version. And he fittingly made his India debut in the same format, against England here in the second contest of the five-match series.
While Tendulkar’s maiden international game was a grainy live PTV footage in that 1989 Test against Pakistan, Sooryavanshi has entered the cauldron with 4k cameras tracking his every move since he landed in the UK. The chubby Gen Z teenager is already staring out from the screens of high-end smartphones, a testimony to the immense growth of the Indian cricket establishment that has traversed several miles to become a behemoth. It’s fair to say that Tendulkar was the cause. Sooryavanshi is the effect.
On that Wednesday of November 1989, Tendulkar stepped out at the National Stadium in Karachi to face an attack that comprised Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir.
It was a time when the Berlin Wall was still intact, and the Soviet Union was very much in existence. Rajiv Gandhi was still two and a half weeks away from losing a Lok Sabha election and stepping down from the post of India’s Prime Minister.
The era of economic liberalisation ushered in by Dr Manmohan Singh was still a year and a half away. Tendulkar was from the age of floppy discs, while Sooryavanshi’s generation is looking towards a future run by Artificial Intelligence.
A lot has changed, but one thing has remained common — finding joy in an aspirational ‘Make In India’ story.
Not since Tendulkar’s emergence has there been such hype around a young cricketer, whose debut is being anticipated by an entire nation. Since he landed in this part of the world, fans have been making a beeline for selfies.
In fact, such is the craze that a fan was seen taking a selfie with Sooryvanshi’s Rajasthan Royals-appointed guardian Romi Bhinder, happy to be clicked even if it’s with his manager. Everyone wants a piece of Sooryavanshi just like everyone once wanted a bit of Tendulkar. Just that it was the pre-internet era in India, and now every fan armed with a smartphone is a digital reporter.
