Sanju Samson has revealed what made the Rajasthan Royals (RR) splurged INR 1.10 Crores on 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi of Bihar in the recent IPL 2025 mega auction. Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson claimed that 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi brought "something special" to his team.
In early October, Suryavanshi made his public debut during an unofficial Test match between the India under-19 team and the Australia under-19 team in Chennai. Against considerably older bowlers, he hammered 104 off 62 balls, including four sixes and 14 boundaries.
Not a single batter went past three figures in the match and India ended up winning by two wickets.
“I have seen his highlights. All of the people in the Rajasthan decision-making group saw him bat at the U19 Test match vs Australia in Chennai, where he scored a hundred of 60-70 balls. The shots that he played there, it felt like, that’s something special and we felt like we have to have those kind of individuals in the side and see where they go,” Sanju Samson told AB de Villiers on his YouTube channel.
Samson added that turning gifted people into champions was part of RR's "history," citing Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal as examples.
“But Rajasthan Royals have a history of doing this. They find out talents and make them champions. For example, there is a Yashasvi Jaiswal who came to RR as a youngster and now is a rockstar of the Indian team. There is Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel – they all fall under that line. I think RR loves that kind of thing – yes, we want to win the IPL, but we also want to make sure that we are giving enough champions to Indian cricket. It will be exciting to meet him," Samson added.
After the auction, RR CEO Jake Lush McCrum revealed that Suryavanshi had been to RR’s training center in Nagpur and impressed the coaches in a trial.
“He’s been to our high-performance center in Nagpur, he had trials there and really impressed our coaching set-up there," McCrum had said. “He’s an incredible talent and of course, you got to have the confidence so he can step up to the IPL level. So lots of work will go in in the coming months to continue to develop him but hell of a talent and we’re really excited to have him as part of the franchise,” he added.
Suryavanshi recently became the youngest Indian to play a List-A game.
