At 15 years and 232 days, Vaibhav Suryabanshi becomes the youngest captain in men’s T20 cricket
Vaibhav Suryabanshi set a record the moment he walked out as Bihar’s captain in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Indore. At 15 years and 232 days, he is now the youngest captain in men’s T20 cricket.
In the match against Saurashtra, Suryabanshi overtook Croatia’s Zak Vukusic, who had set the previous record in Zagreb last August, captaining Croatia against Cyprus at 17 years and 311 days.
On his record-breaking day, however, Suryabanshi did not get a big score. He made 18 off 12 balls before giving a return catch to Saurashtra pacer Chetan Sakariya.
His team Bihar did not fare well either. Batting out the full 20 overs, they managed only 137 for 9. Saurashtra won by five wickets with 21 balls to spare.
This is another milestone in Suryabanshi’s career. The left-handed batter achieved it just five months after his T20 debut for India, and less than ten months after leading India to the Under-19 World Cup title in Zimbabwe.
After this match, Suryabanshi will be able to play only one more match in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He will then join the India A team for the 50-over ACC Rising Stars Emerging tournament, which begins in Doha on November 19.
Suryabanshi last played for India on the New Zealand tour, where he scored 45 off 19 balls in a 133-run opening stand with Abhishek Sharma that came in just 7.1 overs. He played two matches in that T20 series, which India won 3-2.
Today’s match was Suryabanshi’s eighth for Bihar and his 44th T20 match overall. Of those, 23 were played in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals. Last November, in the ACC Rising Stars tournament, he scored 144 off 42 balls for India A against the United Arab Emirates, the joint third-fastest T20 century by an Indian batter.
