India’s teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi took the cricketing world by storm as he smashed a blistering 175 off 80 balls in the ICC U19 World Cup 2026 final in Harare on Friday (February 6).

Sooryavanshi’s knock, studded with 15 fours and 15 sixes, propelled India to a gigantic total of 411/9. England fell 100 runs short in the chase, courtesy a collapse from 142/2 to 177/7, with RS Ambrish claiming three wickets and Kanishk Chauhan returning with two scalps as well.

Sooryavanshi earned the 'Player-of-the-Match' accolade in the final. The southpaw finished the tournament as the second-highest run-getter with 439 runs in seven innings at an average of 62.71 and a strike rate of 169.49, including a century and three fifties. As a result, he also bagged the 'Player of the Tournament' award.

Impressed with his exploits, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has advocated for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to be fast-tracked to the senior Indian team. Tharoor drew comparisons with the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and said that the 14-year-old deserved higher honours.

After showing extraordinary potential on the maidans of Mumbai, Tendulkar made his international debut at the age of 16 against Pakistan on November 15, 1989, becoming the youngest Indian to play Test cricket.

“Vaibhav Sooryavanshi deserves to be fast-tracked into higher honours. The last time we had a 14-year-old genius at the crease, his name was Sachin Tendulkar. And we didn’t keep him waiting long,” Tharoor wrote on X while reacting to an advertisement featuring the young batter.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi rose to prominance through age-group cricket in 2025 and became a household name with his dazzling exploits in the Indian Premier League.

Playing for Rajasthan Royals, the swashbuckling left-hander scored 252 runs in seven matches with a strike rate of 206.55. The highlight of his maiden IPL season was the mind-blowing 35-ball century against Gujarat Titans at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Sooryavanshi, at just 14 years and 32 days, became the youngest-ever batter to score a ton in the cash-rich league. His 101-run knock off 38 balls, laced with 7 fours and 11 sixes, paved the way for RR’s eight-wicket victory in the chase of 210 with 25 deliveries to spare.

During the course of his whirlwind innings, Sooryavanshi broke Yusuf Pathan's 15-year-old record for the fastest IPL hundred by an Indian. His ton was the second fastest in the tournament history after Chris Gayle's century in 30 balls for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2013.