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Legendary Australia cricketer Steve Waugh shut down all comparisons between IPL batting sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. While the former made his debut in the IPL at the age of 14, the latter made his international debut at the age of 16.
Tendulkar is arguably the greatest batter to grace the game in history and Waugh made it clear that the India legend is incomparable. He also referred to the former India batter's sensational knock of 114 in Perth during the Men in Blue's tour of Australia back in 1991/92. However, Waugh also showered praise on Suryavanshi, who is the youngest batter to score a century in T20 cricket.
“I don’t think you can compare anyone to Sachin Tendulkar. I mean, a 16-year-old (18-year-old) coming out to Australia and scoring a century in Perth on the hardest, (the) most unique pitch in world cricket where most players really struggle to play on a pitch," Waugh said at an event in Mumbai.
“…for him to score a century as a teenager in Perth was a freakish performance. It’s very rare you get a Sachin Tendulkar come along. But I would never have expected a 14-year-old to score a 100 in the IPL, that was unthinkable," he added.
Suryavanshi, whose services were acquired by the Rajasthan Royals for a fee of INR 1.1 crore at the IPL 2025 mega auction, played a total of seven matches in the season and scored 252 runs, striking the ball at a blistering rate of 206.55.
The 14-year-old scored a fifty and a century each and proved to be very impressive in his debut season of IPL. The century that Suryavanshi scored against the Gujarat Titans came after facing just 35 deliveries, making it the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in the league and the second-fastest ton overall only behind Chris Gayle's 30-ball hundred for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru back in the 2013 season of IPL.
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