Cricket’s teen phenom Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was called up to India’s senior T20 squad in early June, as they prepared for tours to Ireland and England, and the Asian Games. At age 15, he was set to become India’s youngest player ever, beating the record of Sachin Tendulkar, who made his Test debut at age 16 years and 205 days in 1989. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) agreed to make travel arrangements for Vaibhav’s parents to accompany him on the overseas tours.
Vaibhav earned his selection through an outstanding performance in the IPL, where he scored 776 runs for the Rajasthan Royals to lead all batsmen in the tournament. He won the MVP and emerging player prizes. “With his performances, he has almost forced us to pick him,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar told AFP. “Like everyone else that has watched T20 cricket in India, we have got high hopes of him. I think he just has picked himself.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge. [Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]