Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s jaw-dropping century got TOI to hit the rewind button and recall exploits of other talented Indian cricketers who became teenage superstars.
Sachin Tendulkar
It’s a pity there is no official record of that mad game in Peshawar in Dec 1989. Bad light ensured that an ODI was converted to a 20-over exhibition match. A T20, a decade and a half before T20 was formally invented. Tendulkar, all of 16, walked in when India needed 69 runs from five overs to chase down Pakistan’s 157. He smashed Mushtaq Ahmed for two sixes, which prompted legendary Pakistani leggie Abdul Qadir to slip in the now-infamous barb, “Bachchon ko kyon mar rahe ho? Hamein bhi maar ke dikhao (why are you hitting kids? Hit my deliveries and show me).” The 16-year-old obliged, hitting Qadir for 6, 0, 4, 6, 6, 6. Tendulkar ended up with an 18-ball 53 and became the mood barometer of a cricket-mad nation for the next 25 years.
Yuvraj Singh
Stories of a young Punjab southpaw depositing balls from Churchgate’s Oval maidan onto the streets had already started doing the rounds in Mumbai when he was training at the Vengsarkar academy. Yuvraj Singh, 18, son of former India pacer Yograj Singh, was a star of India’s victorious U-19 WC campaign in Sri Lanka, and made it to the Indian team. In the ICC KnockOut quarterfinal against Australia in Nairobi, he entered with India in trouble at 90/3. The power and punch that he generated while playing off the backfoot to pacers like Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie left spectators awestruck. Yuvraj went on to become a great in white-ball cricket.
Irfan Pathan
You think only Pakistani magician Wasim Akram had the copyright to move an old ball? Search ‘Irfan Pathan + Adam Gilchrist + 2004 Sydney’. And, if you’re still in school, open your geometry textbook and continue studying the parabola. That is what this 19-yearold from Baroda produced to dismiss the savage Aussie batter. Changing his line of attack from round to over the wicket, Irfan drew Gilchrist forward, created a gap, got the ball to tail in at his toes very late and defeated Gilchrist’s defences to hit timber. It was sorcery. Fittingly, it was Bill Lawry’s roar of “bowled him, what a ripper” that called the moment.
Who’s that IPL player?
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan
The ‘Boy Wonder’ before Sachin Tendulkar and the youngest to play for India in a Test as a 17-year-old in 1983, vs West Indies in Antigua. Twirling the ball from right to left, beating batters with dip and turn, Siva, as he was popularly called, looked as if he would be India’s next Chandra. Watch Javed Miandad’s stumping in the WCC final in 1985, or his setting up of Allan Lamb with a magical googly in the same tournament. A match haul of 12/181 vs England at the Wankhede in Nov 1984, two months prior to his Australia heroics, served ample notice of his talent. In a tragic loss for Indian cricket, his career went downhill from there on.
Prithvi Shaw
With the nation still dealing with Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement at an emotional Wankhede a week ago, Prithvi Shaw seemed to have taken it upon himself to fill the void. Aged 14, he smashed 546 for Rizvi Springfield vs St. Francis d’ Assisi in a Harris Shield match in Nov 2013 at Azad Maidan, barely two kilometres away from Wankhede. Four years later, a hundred on Ranji debut vs Tamil Nadu in the semis followed. Six months later, he emulated Tendulkar to score a ton on Duleep Trophy debut. After leading India to the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand in Feb 2018, the world was at his feet. A ton on Test debut at Rajkot followed vs West Indies. Sadly, fame and off-field indiscretions saw him slip down the pecking order.
