VAIBHAV SURYAVANSHI's parents told AFP how they made a practice pitch in their village in India's poorest state to spark the teenage cricket prodigy's stunning rise -- and now his younger brother hones his skills on it.
Suryavanshi was the talk of world cricket after making history in the Indian Premier League last year aged just 14 in a dazzling debut season.
The supremely talented left-handed batsman, who turned 15 on Friday (27), belted a six on the first ball he faced for Rajasthan Royals.
Days later the school boy smacked a 35-ball century, the second fastest in the T20 competition's history after Chris Gayle (30 balls).
"He is fearless," said Manish Ojha, one of Suryavanshi's first coaches, ahead of the new IPL season starting on Saturday (28). "That is his nature."
Suryavanshi's stunning introduction to elite cricket was no flash in the pan.
He then hammered 175 off just 80 balls -- an innings laced with a staggering 30 boundaries -- in February, helping India thump England by 100 runs in the Under-19 ODI World Cup final in Harare.
He was named player of the match and player of the tournament, having finished with 439 runs in seven innings at an average of 62.71.
The teenager's rise has been swift since first picking up a bat when he was barely five.
He made his domestic debut aged 12 for his home state of Bihar in the Ranji Trophy in January 2024, then was selected for India's under-19 squad against a touring Australia team.
He promptly hit a 58-ball century, the second-fastest ton in youth Tests after England's Moeen Ali in 2005.
Ojha praised Suryavanshi's ability to replicate what he learned in the nets, including the one his parents had put together, in the heat of competition.
"What makes him special is the ability to execute plans on match days," said Ojha.
Suryavanshi's blistering march to teenage superstardom from India's poorest state has involved significant sacrifice from his middle-class parents.
For years his father accompanied him every other day from their home in the village of Motipur to Ojha's cricket academy in Bihar's capital city, Patna, a one-way journey of roughly two-and-a-half hours.
"My small business failed because of my full-time focus on training Vaibhav," said Sanjeev Suryavanshi outside the family's two-storey house.
For his mother it involved getting up before everyone.
"It was not easy to wake up at 3am to cook for him so that he could take homemade food with him," said Aarti Singh.
The sacrifices paid off when a 13-year-old Suryavanshi in 2024 became the youngest-ever player to be sold in an IPL auction.
Rajasthan Royals snapped him up for $130,500, more than a hundred times the average per capita annual income in Bihar.
Born on March 27, 2011, Suryavanshi is the first IPL cricketer born after the tournament's inception in 2008.
In a Rajasthan Royals media interaction earlier this month, Suryavanshi cheekily said he hoped to score "two-three thousand runs" in this year's tournament, before playing down "personal goals".
"The idea is to follow the process and help the team win," said Suryavanshi, whose media duties are limited by the team to protect him.
Back home in Motipur, father Sanjeev said the family is now eagerly waiting for Suryavanshi to don senior India colours.
"He has been playing extraordinary cricket so far," a proud Sanjeev said, as he watched his youngest son Ashirwad, 11, practise on the same modest pitch he had built near their home.
"Cricket is Vaibhav's life, dream and faith."
