Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the young prodigy from Bihar, played a blinder of an innings against Gujarat Titans in the 2025 Indian Premier League. At the age of just 14, he went on to compile the second fastest ton in the annals of IPL. After essaying that crackerjack innings, he was rightly showered with praises. In this exclusive chat with RevSportz, Manish Ojha, his coach, shares insights on Vaibhav’s believe-it-or-not knock, the bit of advice that he gave to his ward before the GT-RR game, the jaw-dropping bat-swing, his aggressive mindset, and some evocative memories.
The other day, while playing Gujarat Titans, Vaibhav Suryavanshi compiled the second fastest ton in the IPL history. As a coach, can you share your feelings of watching your student essay a superlative innings?
It was a great and thrilling moment. After watching his batting, I was so thrilled. It was a dream come true for the coach, for his parents. It has made myself and all the Biharis proud, that one of our players is playing at the top level, batting like a champion.
Did you have any kind of conversations with him, before or after the match?
Yes, I had conversations with him – before and after the match. Before the match, we had some conversations on technical issues. See, in the second match, he got out on 16. If you see that match, he was trying to hit each and every ball, he was trying to use too much power, because of all that his balance wasn’t that good. Also, he was using a single footwork in which he was taking his front foot away from the ball. The kind of batting that he does, he can hit sixes even if the fielders are on the boundary line because normally he hits 80-90m sixes. So, it is not right to get into a hurry and hit each and every ball. I asked him to be patient, (be) cool and analyse, and play each ball on its merit.
Second thing was that you’re playing with a single footwork, where you become very predictable: The front foot goes towards leg-stump; over the covers or point or midwicket you will end up playing. I suggested him to watch Yashasvi Jaiswal’s batting. He was using three-four kinds of footwork. The first one was going back and across, the second one getting into the line of the ball – he was taking his front foot towards the pitch, a few deliveries he was taking the front foot away from the line, so that he could hit over covers, point and all.
He was also waiting without any movement so that if he faced a short ball, he could adjust his weight on the back foot and play the upper-cut or slash it over point. If you become predictable with your footwork, very easy for the bowlers, they can quickly plan – where to bowl according to your footwork and counter it. But if you use 3-4 types of footwork and play as late as possible, then what could happen is that the bowler might get confused and would try to contain. That is when you might get loose deliveries, and you can capitalise on it. See, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and even Jaiswal, they play very late. Even Vaibhav has tremendous talent, equal talent, all he needs is to apply (himself) while batting.
What do you make of his mindset? He smashed the first ball that he faced in the IPL for a six…
For mindset, there is one match in which I was doing the match simulation. I asked him, ‘You only hit fours and sixes, probably you’re going to play state matches where you have to face many deliveries, and you can’t hit a six every ball, you need to learn strike rotation, look to take singles and double.’ Very politely he told me, ‘If I can hit a six for a particular ball, then why take a single?’ This was his crystal-clear mindset, aggressive mindset about how he wants to play. His role model is Lara. When Lara was playing, he could dominate the bowlers, he is a person of the same mindset, right from the first ball, he can go all out (attack) and hit the bowler out of the park.
He liked playing shots from an early age. As a coach, I trained him to play all the shots, all the run-scoring shots like cut, pull, step out and drive, step out and loft. From an initial age, I ensured that his bat-lift goes right to the top, which works as a lever, worked on his timing and power generation. In this process, apart from putting him into the drills and nets, what I was doing was putting him in match simulations, match situations. For example, in a match simulation, we were giving him a target of 120 runs in 20 overs. Whatever he learnt from net sessions – right from bat-lift to execution, he was trying to implement it in the matches, and he was very successful from an early age.
What do you make of his tremendous bat-swing?
As a coach, whenever boys come over to us, we know that bat-lift plays a very crucial role in batting, the stability, head position, all these things play a major role. Right from the initial phase, I would get his bat-lift higher. If you see his bat-lift starts from gully, then downswing becomes straight, the full face of the bat goes towards the bowler. From early days, I tried a lot… you would have seen Yuravj’s bat-lift, straight-down. It can happen with practice. But with him, it is from an early stage (of his career). But even with his bat-lift that is going away, it gives some advantages like a high bat-lift that goes slightly away (from) hand and body, he can play the pull and cut well. From early days itself, work was being done on these things. He works hard, I also was trying very hard on it.
What was your first impression of Vaibhav?
He came in 2018-19, he was around 8-9 years old. As you can see his face is very cute, he was a little bulky, he was short. As a coach, you need some time to understand the players: What is his strength? What is his weakness? What are the areas to work on? Gradually, once he started his practice, I observed a lot of positive points in him, his timing, his bat-swing.
Apart from that, he was very interested in playing shots. If you see in a match, a field will be set, and the bowler bowls a particular line. So, how to break that line and length, the field set-up, we worked on all these things in open net sessions and match sessions. Suppose nine fielders are on the off-side and none on the leg-side, how to get inside the line and smash it over midwicket, and if there is one fielder at covers, how to hit it inside-out. And if a left-arm spinner is bowling a tight line outside the off-stump, with a gully and one extra cover, how to get in line and play a sweep. And if a bowler is giving flight, how to step out and hit. We practiced a lot on these things.
I can’t remember a single incident, where I have given a demo, I have said something, and he hasn’t done it. I can’t remember a single incident where I had to scold him. Or for a shot, I had to show a repeat demo. You might have seen in the U19 match, he had hit a century, the back foot punch, the position of the body arc after hitting, he played exactly like I said. You just have to give him a domo. If you tell the boys, they do very good in practice and then during the game, they will feel the pressure. But Vaibhav was equally good in the practice and in the match. He has no fear.
Any specific memories related to Vaibhav’s cricket career so far? It could be related to watching him bat in the nets or an innings that convinced you about his potential…
There was a match in my academy. There was a match between GenX, my team, and the other academy. In their team, there were two Ranji Trophy players, U19 and U23 bowlers were also there. That is when you felt that he was ready for top-flight cricket. He made 118 runs, he hit a lot of sixes, fours, the way he batted was tremendous. The scenario was similar to what it was against GT. He single-handedly won the match. The shot execution, selection, timing, it was next level batting. That particular innings never goes out of my mind.
What about his family background?
He is from a very humble family; there were lots of financial constraints. But his father somehow managed it. He even outstretched himself for his son, taking a loan, for his equipment, for his travel expenses, training expenses, he did his best. He did everything to ensure that his son plays well. Actually, at an early stage nobody knows what a player would do. Only someone up there knows it. He did everything that he could, Vaibhav responded equally by performing and taking his game to the next level.
Can you elaborate on how Vaibhav would engage himself in a 600-ball-routine every day?
Vaibhav was coming to my academy for personal training. Match simulation, bowling machine, robo arm, throwdowns, drills, open net session, all these things, 200 balls per day I myself used to throw. He used to come in at 7.30 AM and go back at 3-4 PM. There used to be a break in between but his practice sessions kept continuing. Along with him, he would bring in some academy bowlers. After my session, he would play against them for hours, then to set-up the bowling machine.
His batting itself was so beautiful that you don’t feel like stopping. With the robo arm, throwing with your arm for a period of time can get exhausting but he used to bat so beautifully. I would say 400 balls on an average daily, but sometimes it used to be more. He always was in the habit of batting for a longer period of time, playing a lot of strokes.
How do you look at Vaibhav’s future, especially in the longest format?
He is playing in the IPL, the team’s coach is Rahul Dravid. The more matches he plays, the more exposure he gets, he will improve his batting. You see Dravid was a great Test player, the pillar of Indian cricket, the wall. Hopefully, he will guide him to perform equally well in the longer format. At this point of time, he is doing excellent in white-ball cricket.
How is Vaibhav outside of cricket?
He is very polite, very quiet, he is a bit shy (and) doesn’t talk much. We have a coach-student relationship, so outside of cricket, there wasn’t much of a conversation, my major focus was on cricket, drills, nets, in that only time used to fly, there wasn’t much of a chance to talk on a personal level. But his father is a good friend of mine, so we talk. The boy’s target (goal) is just cricket.
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