‘This guy's 20 years younger than me': Jos Buttler recalls moment he felt Vaibhav Suryavanshi is the ‘best player I've ever seen'
Jos Buttler was in for a major surprise when his former franchise, Rajasthan Royals, unleashed the Vaibhav Suryavanshi phenomenon in their second meeting against the Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2025 season. The GT wicket-keeper witnessed carnage from behind the stumps as the 14-year-old Suryavanshi destroyed T20 records with his 35-ball century, the fastest-ever by an Indian in the history of the IPL and the second-quickest behind Chris Gayle's 30-ball ton in 2013.
However, it was not a superb onslaught in Jaipur that made Buttler hail Suryavanshi as the best player he has ever seen. But more on the first impressions now.
'The innings against us — you know, our bowling attack consists of Mohammed Siraj, a brilliant international bowler, Prasidh Krishna, an international bowler, Rashid Khan, the best T20 bowler — and he just… the scale of the sixes. They weren't just clearing the boundary — they were big sixes. I mean, you're literally a yard from him. Big sixes. And a 35-ball 100 — it was outrageous,' Buttler said on the For the Love of Cricket podcast with his former teammate, Stuart Broad.
Suryavanshi's cracking century would make light work of a 210-run target that Rajasthan would chased down in only 15.5 overs.
'It's inspiring and deflating at the same time. This guy's 20 years younger than me, and he's just smashing us all around the park. But yeah, absolutely — shockwaves throughout the cricket world,' he added.
Buttler was, however, awestruck when Suryavanshi played a watchful hand against Chennai Super Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, scoring 57 off 33 deliveries.
'I was watching on TV. And, you know, Chennai have Ravi Ashwin, Jadeja — proper seasoned pros. And he was like, bang, hit them out into the sand. And then sort of, you know, knocked one out to cover, like, I'm so in control, I'll just take one now, trot down to the other end. And at that moment, I'm like — this guy's the best player I've ever seen. Like, I'm so blown away,' Buttler added.
Suryavanshi will soon be in action in England for an under-19 tour with the India U19 side, starting June 27.
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