The 15-year-old Indian that cricket can no longer ignore

Suryavanshi is playing for the Rajasthan Royals in IPL [AFP via Getty Images] As the world's richest cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) returns on Saturday, there will be a lot of attention on the big names. Some of it will also be on a teenager. A day before the IPL starts on 27 March, Rajasthan Royals batter Vaibhav Suryavanshi turns 15.

And with that, one of Indian cricket's most intriguing questions sharpens into focus: is he ready for the big stage? Suryavanshi first turned heads three years ago when he was a 12-year-old batter taking bowlers old enough to be his father to the cleaners. Since then, however, the quality of his batting, consistency and hunger for tall scores at an extreme strike rate have taken centre-stage.

Standing tall at the crease, Suryavanshi is an instinctive aggressor - he attacks the ball rather than waiting for it, and at his best, his strokeplay carries a flourish that many have likened to the great Garry Sobers. In 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) drew a line - introducing minimum age rules in the name of "safeguarding of players". Even at the Under-19 level, the message was clear: no-one below 15 would step onto the international stage.

This was the first time the ICC had put in a minimum age requirement, with Pakistan's Hasan Raza holding the record for being the youngest male Test cricketer at 14 years and 227 days when he made his debut in 1996. While Raza's record remains safe, one barrier has quietly fallen: Sachin Tendulkar's benchmark - an international debut at 16 years and 205 days - is no longer out of reach for Suryavanshi. It would be a surprise if India's selectors waited long.