Vaibhav Suryavanshi has Chris Gayle’s 175 IPL record in his sights
14-year-old also wants to win the IPL for the Rajasthan Royals this season
Dubai: Chris Gayle holds the record for the highest individual score in the Indian Premier League. Playing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, his explosive 175 came off just 66 balls consisting of 13 fours and 17 sixes against Pune Warriors India in 2013, and the record still stands today. During that same innings, But will it ever be broken?
14-year-old sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi wants to achieve that. During the BCCI Naman Awards in New Delhi, Suryavanshi was asked which individual milestone he would most like to break: hitting six sixes in an over, surpassing Gayle’s 175, or scoring the fastest IPL century.
“Breaking that 175 record,” he replied confidently.
Suryavanshi has already grabbed attention with his performances in the IPL and at the ICC Under‑19 Cricket World Cup.
Looking ahead, the young batter has set his biggest goal for the year: winning the IPL with the Rajasthan Royals. At the same time, he has his sights firmly set on chasing Gayle’s record for the highest individual score in the league’s history.
During the same match, Gayle also set the record for the fastest IPL century, reaching the milestone in just 30 balls.
Remarkably, Suryavanshi came close to that record in his debut IPL season last year. Playing against the Gujarat Titans, he blasted a 35-ball century before eventually being dismissed for 101 off 38 deliveries. The knock became the fastest century by an Indian in IPL history, surpassing the previous record set by Yusuf Pathan, who had scored a hundred in 37 balls for Rajasthan Royals against the Mumbai Indians in the 2010 season.
At the BCCI event, Suryavanshi was asked if he remembered his first talk with Dravid and then-captain Samson before his debut. Before he could answer, Samson jumped in with the hilarious details.
“I was actually in a meeting at the time. Rahul Sir called him into the room and told me, ‘Sanju, we need to talk to him. He’s just a young kid; we need to guide him on how to go about things.’ So Rahul Sir asked him, ‘Vaibhav, what’s the plan?’ Vaibhav replied, ‘Kuch nahi sir, hum to khelenge. (Nothing special, Sir. I’ll just play). Then he asked ‘What is your game plan?’ and Vaibhav was like ‘Agar hume agar pehla mila to hum pehla hi uda denge (If I get the first ball, I’m just going to smash it), and I was like yeh alag video game hi khel raha hai (He is playing a completely different video game),” Samson recalled the moment.
Suryavanshi was the youngest player to make his IPL debut last year. Since then, he has continued his rise, playing a starring role in India’s triumph at the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year. He finished as India’s highest run-scorer and the second-highest overall in the tournament, amassing 439 runs in seven matches at a staggering strike rate of 169.49 and an average of 62.71.
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