In RR’s first few matches, the 14-year-old was on the bench, but after Sanju Samson sustained an injury, he was sent to open the innings with India international Yashasvi Jaiswal. He made his IPL debut on April 19, 2025, against Lucknow Super Giants, at the tender age of 14 years and 23 days. It also made him the youngest debutant in IPL history, scoring 34 runs off 20 balls, including a first-ball six. However, it didn’t just end there. In the next game, Suryavanshi went a notch higher against Shubman Gill’s Gujarat Titans, becoming the youngest player to score an IPL century. The youngster destroyed the likes of Mohammed Siraj and Rashid Khan, slamming 101 off 38 balls, reaching his 100 off only 35 deliveries.

‘It’s inspiring and deflating at the same time’

Speaking to Stuart Broad on a YouTube podcast, Jos Buttler, who was present in that match, keeping wicket for GT, was asked about his first impressions of Suryavanshi. The T20 World Cup-winning skipper’s response showed that he was spellbound by the youngster’s debut season.

“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 yes, absolutely like shockwaves throughout the sort of cricket world, I think, a 14-year-old guy getting picked out, that was the story wasn’t it, he was in the auction as the youngest and Jimmy (Anderson) being the oldest in the age difference,” he said.

“But yes, he actually hit his first ball for six in the IPL. He played two or three games, I think before he played against us. So first ball he’s ever faced in the IPL, he sort of gave himself a bit of room and smacked it over wide long off for a six and that fearlessness and I think I love these guys out there now. There’s so many brilliant players, they almost want to make a statement as in look at me and whether I don’t know we have to try and get him on the pod and ask him but like how long before that happened did you think I’m going to try and hit my first ball for six because it was a premeditated shot, it wasn’t just there, he looked for it and then he was sort of born.

“The innings against us, our bowling attack has Mohammed Siraj, brilliant international bowler, Prasidh Krishna, international bowler, Rashid Khan, best T20 bowler. And just the scale of the sixes, well, they’re not just going over the boundaries, they were big sixes.

“And 35 ball 100, it was outrageous. And he actually played an innings, a couple of games later against Chennai. I was watching on the TV and Chennai have R Ashwin, Jadeja, proper season pros, and he’d bang, hit them out into the stands, then sort of knock one out to cover, sort of like, I’m so in control, I’ll just take one now, drop down 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 by it. The 100 was incredible, right? It was just like, but he went for it every ball. It was like, no fear,” he further added.

When asked what his team’s plan was for Suryavanshi, Buttler revealed that after watching some videos, he felt that Suryavanshi’s bat swing was similar to two cricket legends.

“He played a couple of games. Even at that age, I think he played first-class cricket at 12, something like that. He’s from a very small state in sort of north-east India. I think it’s called Bihar. Not many cricketers have been produced from there, but even at that age, he’s playing first-class cricket. I think he scored in the fastest hundreds for India under-19s against Australia under-19s, I believe, which was maybe just before the auction, around that time. So there’s been a video. People have seen him with this amazing bat swing. Bit like, it’s a huge statement, Yuvraj (Singh)/ Lara (Brian),” he said.

“But at the same time you’re a bit like why am I getting so scared of a 14 year old.”

Suryavanshi is currently on duty with the India U-19 team in England, and will be looking to make his mark while on the tour.