On the day he became the youngest cricketer to represent India, at 15 years and 99 days, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi offered an important reminder: prodigies are burdened with countless narratives, but only one of them is true — their own.
The pre-match discourse demanded another miracle, the sort he made routine during the IPL. Instead came a 10-ball 14, punctuated by the kind of misjudgements one would expect from a 15-year-old. It served as a timely reality check. For Sooryavanshi can become India’s saviour, India must allow him to be.
The second T20I in Manchester will be remembered as the day Sooryavanshi made his debut. There was, however, the minor matter of a match to be won — and England took the bragging rights in that regard – courtesy Jacob Bethell, who has developed a penchant for scoring big against India. The hosts secured a four-wicket win, reaching the target of 191 with an over to spare to take a 1-0 lead after the Durham game was washed out.
Given his first two wild swings, there could be an argument that Sooryavanshi’s reputation arrived before he did, and with it, the burden of living up to it. Sceptics had presented a case of second-season syndrome prior to IPL 2026, but the teenager’s rebuttal was fierce: he struck a first-ball boundary in each of the first four matches. Not even Jasprit Bumrah was spared.