Fast and fearless: How teen sensations are taking the IPL by storm

CHENNAI: Every Indian Premier League (IPL) season comes with a new narrative thread. Some years it’s about comeback kings. Other times, it’s about fading legends having one last swing. But this year, the script is being written by a bunch of players, some of whom weren’t even born when the tournament first began.

It’s the season of youth. Not wide-eyed debutants sneaking in a game or two. But prime-time, spotlight-grabbing young guns who’ve taken the “Where talent meets opportunity” tagline and said this is how T20I cricket will be in the future.

At the heart of this story is the 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi from Rajasthan Royals, who made heads turn on April 28 at 10.30 pm, when he etched his name in history books clearing Rashid Khan over mid-wicket to become the youngest ever to score a century in the IPL.

Not just that, it was the second-fastest century ever in the league, in 35 balls.

The Bihar boy lived out every teenager’s cricketing fantasy—not in a video game, not in the coaching nets—but under the floodlights, against Mohammed Siraj, Rashid, Prasidh Krishna and Ishant Sharma with millions watching.

So, what is up with franchises going all-in on such raw talent?

Last season saw names like Abhishek Sharma, Nitesh Reddy, Riyan Parag and Harshit Rana stepping up and earning the faith of their teams. But now, even they seem like seniors compared to the likes of Suryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre and Vignesh Puthur.

The IPL has evolved into a testing ground for the next generation of T20I disruptors. Although the largely spoken 300-run barrier hasn’t been crossed by any team so far, the chances of that happening in a high-profile game is still within grasp.

This season, aggression from ball one is the template. Suryavanshi launched his IPL career with a six off the first ball; Mhatre smashed 17 off his first four against Mumbai, including two sixes and a four. Teams love it. Broadcasters love it.

However, it backfired for SRH who were sticking to its ultra-aggressive, attack-at-all-costs strategy which did not yield the results they hoped for.

But on the other hand, one of the main reasons for five-time champion Chennai Super Kings’ lackluster campaign is the failure of firepower at the top and not putting faith in youngsters, unlike other franchises who have found success from investing in uncapped players winning them matches.

Only after the disastrous top-order failure from Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, and Rahul Tripathi, have CSK turned to the youth—but it may have been too late.

The team’s batting coach Mike Hussey admitted as much.

“I think one area that we’ve really identified that we want to improve on is the talent identification side of things,” said Hussey before the match against Punjab.

“So, we have had different players come in and train with us at various stages, almost on trial a little bit, but also when their names come up for an auction, then at least we’ve seen them, we’ve had eyes on them. I mean, we get sent all the videos, packages and stuff. But to be able to actually watch them in the flesh, it does give you a bit more to go on,” he added.

But for players this young, the real challenge isn’t pace—it’s pressure. Many actually thrive on speed, using it to time shots better since raw power isn’t always there. What weighs heavier is the spotlight, the scrutiny, and the flood of data on every stroke and delivery, especially on teenagers who are still finding their feet.

The classic example for this is Suryavanshi.

Speaking about the overnight attention on the youngster, Rahul Dravid, head coach of Rajasthan Royals, said it is impossible for him to avoid it, but stressed on the importance of improving his skills and enjoying the process.

“At this stage, you don’t want to really confuse him (Suryavanshi) with too many things but just try to allow him to keep it simple and really have some fun and enjoy his cricket,” said Dravid in the Star Sports Press Room.

“Obviously, he likes to play a positive brand of cricket, that’s no secret, and we want to encourage him to do that and set it up in such a way that he can play that form of cricket without worrying about it too much,” he added.

Gone are the days where franchises buy uncapped player for the sake of it. Now, they are the main part of the squad. Punjab Kings found success with their uncapped duo at the top consistently and in the game against CSK, they even fielded six of them.

With all of this, the Indian team literally have more than half-a-dozen legitimate top-order contenders to look for. It’ll be interesting to see how the selectors go about for the upcoming tours and the T20I World Cup next year.