A Million Boundaries Now: 14-year-old hits incredible IPL century ... and there's more where that came from

IPL taps extraordinary teenage talent

“Change is present everywhere, India was now a country of million mutinies. A million mutinies, supported by twenty kinds of group excess, sectarian excess, religious excess, regional excess: the beginnings of self-awareness, it would seem the beginnings of an intellectual life, already negated by old anarchy and disorder. But there was in India now what didn't exist 200 years before: a central will, a central intellect, a national idea. .... What the mutinies were also helping to define was the strength of the general intellectual life, and the wholeness and humanism of the values to which all Indians now felt that they could appeal. They were a part of the beginning of a new way for many millions, part of India's growth, part of its restoration."

From VS Naipaul’s India: A Million Mutinies Now. 1990

VS Naipaul’s sweeping, slightly jaundiced views of India before the social and economic revolution of the 1990s nonetheless hinted at something already emerging from its post-colonial struggles.

If only he’d waited for the IPL to see the full flourish of new India.

If only he’d waited for this 2025 IPL and its unveiling of 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi; the teenager who hit the second fastest century in IPL history, the child-god who announced himself over night on the same stage as the superstars of world cricket – most of whom are more than twice his age and have ten-fold more experience.

Suryavanshi is the distillation of everything IPL.

He is – in a tournament that brands itself as the place where opportunity meets talent – all that and something more. The tournament whose gravitational pull has changed the orbit of cricket’s planets has provided a nation of over a billion people with the resources and opportunity to exploit talent wherever it announces itself. The IPL exploits the talents of the world’s most exciting cricketers while simultaneously acting as the highest stakes talent quest for young hopefuls who’ve honed their skills at rooftop coaching academies.

The game loves fresh-faced talent, but this is getting ridiculous.

Sachin Tendulkar came to the Test arena at 16, and this summer Australia was deliriously distracted by 19-year-old Sam Konstas. The IPL has previously advanced opportunity to others who needed a note from mum to be out that late at night: Prayas Ray Barman was 16 when capped by Sunrisers Hyderabad six years ago.