Sooryavanshi From A Different Planet But Superstardom In Cricket Cannot Be Guaranteed

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When Jasprit Bumrah stood at the top of his mark for the Mumbai Indians against Rajasthan Royals in this year’s Indian Premier League, he was the most complete all-format bowler in history. With a whiplash action that explodes from a staccato run-up like a stick of dynamite from unraveling silk, he fires searing yorkers and steepling bouncers at will. Three balls later, he was the setup for the story’s real protagonist.

Before this moment, Bumrah, winner of five IPLs and two World Cups, had delivered 5,445 balls in T20 cricket for Mumbai and his country. Only 180 of them were sent sailing over the rope for six. That’s a maximum, to use the parlance of the day, every five overs. Since 2013 he has been a walking cheat code, the point of difference in almost every game. None of that seemed to matter to 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Bumrah’s first ball to the kid not old enough to drive was spanked over wide long-on. His third was hoiked over deep-backward square. In half an over, Sooryavanshi had outperformed all the world’s batters by nearly 1,900%. Once we’d stopped wondering if we could believe our eyes, we started to wonder if we were witnessing the nascent steps of cricket’s next superstar?

“The short answer is we can’t know for sure, and anyone who tells you differently is lying,” says David Court, head of player identification at the England and Wales Cricket Board. “It’s a multitude of factors and the interplay between them. If you’re searching for one golden nugget, you’re selling yourself short.”

Court’s job is, in essence, to try anyway. He oversees the identification and development of England’s best young players, while managing a network of scouts tasked with finding the next Joe Root or Jimmy Anderson. It is an exercise in informed guesswork, complicated by the fact that teenage excellence is both common and misleading.

“There are things we can look for,” Court says. “Talent is one thing, but what we’re really after is mental toughness. That sounds vague and manifests in multiple ways, but essentially it boils down to finding a way through adversity.”

A 2012 paper published by Sports Medicine, titled “The Rocky Road to the Top: Why Talent Needs Trauma”, shows that talent benefits from obstacles on the path to success. These aren’t necessarily dramatic. In cricket terms this could be a run of poor scores or opposition batters figuring you out as a bowler. What separates those who endure from those who don’t is not the absence of these moments, but their response to them over time and under pressure. Court namechecks two of England’s rising stars.

“I remember watching Jacob Bethell and James Rew batting against Australia in a youth Test,” Court says, recounting the third innings of the game in Brisbane in 2023. “It was so hostile. The Aussies really gave it to them. But they were calm. Jacob scored a ton [123] and James got a high score [62]. I remember thinking: ‘These guys have got it.’”

Court is particularly excited to see how Sooryavanshi adjusts when that inevitable lean patch arrives. So too is Paul Adams, the former South Africa wrist-spinner turned coach who got to watch the young Indian starlet up close during the recent Under-19 World Cup, where he scored 439 runs – including 163 against England in the final – with a strike-rate of 169.49.

“He’s from a different planet,” says Adams, who was a young sensation in his own right, making his Test debut at 18 against England in 1995. “I’m interested if he has a plan other than just smacking it when top bowlers start figuring him out, because they will.”

Adams stood at this crossroads himself. With an action that Mike Gatting likened to a “frog in a blender”, he delivered the ball with flailing limbs as he released the ball while looking towards the sky. In his first three series, “Gogga” as he was known (Afrikaans for insect), claimed 31 wickets at an average of 25.

“My strength was that I was unique,” Adams says. “I think it’s important for all youngsters who make the step up to have something unique about them. But you can’t rest on that. Once batters started to pick my googly, and they started playing me off the pitch a bit more, I had to develop different plans. It’s not easy. I’ve seen a lot of top youngsters fall away because they couldn’t adapt.”

Much of this has to do with their environment. “We try to create scenarios that are competitive, relentless, hard-working, but also supportive,” Court adds. The balance is delicate. Too little pressure and a player never develops the tools to cope. Too much, too early, and they risk being overwhelmed.

Adams came through a different, more Spartan era. “It was sink or swim,” he says. “There wasn’t much care for young players. It was on you to prove that you belonged. I see the love that Vaibhav gets and it looks totally alien to what my generation had.”

Court concurs: “It’s so different. Yes there’s more appreciation for soft skills, but there are other variables at play. Lads get a few runs at a World Cup and suddenly they’ve got thousands more followers. They hit one boundary in a game and that’s instantly posted on their socials. They’re dealing with that while they’re still playing.”

Sooryavanshi has 3.8 million followers on Instagram. His fame has outpaced the glut of runs that cannon off his bat. His challenge from here will be far more complex than simply spanking the world’s best bowler.

Wisden shines light on India’s control

The 163rd edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack is out on Thursday and editor Lawrence Booth has come out swinging. In his opening remarks he takes aim at the “increasingly Orwellian” control India exerts on the game.

Of course, Booth has receipts. He points out that the Indian Premier League now functions less as a tournament and more as a gravitational force, warping the global calendar around it. Bilateral tours are squeezed into its margins, International Cricket Council events tiptoe around it, and boards fall into line. When the Board of Control for Cricket in India declined to send a team to Pakistan for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, the solution was not negotiation so much as accommodation with a “hybrid model” that ensured India played elsewhere. There was the curious case of a Bangladesh player being quietly dropped from IPL consideration after political sensitivities flared. And presiding over it all is Jay Shah, moving from BCCI secretary to ICC chair with the sort of seamless inevitability that would make a Kremlin apparatchik blush. Add in India’s swollen share of ICC revenues and the unspoken rule that global tournaments must suit Indian broadcast primetime, and the picture sharpens.

Of course, none of this is new. Not really. For all the hand-wringing about overreach, there’s a danger of mistaking discomfort for injustice. Cricket has always followed power, and for much of its history that power wore an English accent and travelled first class. India’s version arrives louder, brasher, and wrapped in a strain of hyper-nationalism that can feel jarring, but it is also rooted in a vast, invested public for whom cricket is far more than a pastime.

This is not to excuse the ugliness on social media, or the bombast of politicians and Bollywood stars. But before anyone points a finger towards Ahmedabad, let them be conscious of three other fingers pointing right back.

After all, for players, supporters and journalists from South Africa, New Zealand or West Indies, the inequities of the game remain the same. There’s just a different ruler sitting on the throne.

Quote of the week

“This County Championship sub rule is complete nonsense” – Ian Ward, commentating on Sky, is not a fan of a new trial law that allows domestic teams to make substitutions for players who are injured, unwell or attending a significant life event such as the birth of a child.

Memory lane

11 April 2000: Hansie Cronje, the South Africa captain, a symbol of a post-racial democracy after the fall of apartheid, sits next to South Africa’s sports minister, Ngconde Balfour (second left), at a press conference on the day he is sacked as captain after admitting receiving between $10,000 and 15,000 from an Indian bookmaker during a limited-over series with Zimbabwe and England.

Still want more?

The latest edition of Wisden has labelled England’s Ashes campaign as “feckless, reckless and legless”.

Ben Stokes has moved to play down suggestions of a disagreement between himself and Brendon McCullum, reports Ali Martin.

And Gary Naylor looks back on the latest round of County Championship action, with Jimmy Anderson inspiring Lancashire to a thrilling win against Derbyshire.