Manchester: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old from Bihar's Samastipur district, on Saturday became India's youngest debutant in international cricket, surpassing the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who held the record for nearly 37 years.
On Saturday, Indian team captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bat against England in the second T20I here, allowing Sooryavanshi to script history in cricket.
The young left-handed opener replaced Sanju Samson at the top of the order in India's only change to the playing XI.
At 15 years and 99 days, Sooryavanshi seems unfamiliar with the concept of defence, his style tailor-made for the demands of cricket's slam-bang T20 format. And he fittingly made his India debut in the same format against England in the second contest of the five-match series here.
Sachin Tendulkar had made his debut at 16 years and 205 days against Pakistan in 1989.
While Tendulkar's maiden international game was captured in grainy live PTV footage during the 1989 Test against Pakistan, Sooryavanshi has entered the cauldron with 4K cameras tracking his every move since he landed in the UK.
The chubby Gen Z teenager is already staring out from the screens of high-end smartphones, a testimony to the immense growth of the Indian cricket establishment, which has traversed several milestones to become a behemoth.
It's fair to say that Tendulkar was the cause. Sooryavanshi is the effect.
On that Wednesday in November 1989, Tendulkar stepped out at the National Stadium in Karachi to face an attack comprising Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir.
It was a time when the Berlin Wall was still intact and the Soviet Union was very much in existence.
Rajiv Gandhi was still two and a half weeks away from losing a Lok Sabha election and stepping down as India's Prime Minister.
The era of economic liberalisation ushered in by Dr Manmohan Singh was still a year and a half away.
Tendulkar belonged to the age of the floppy disk, while Sooryavanshi's generation is looking towards a future driven by Artificial Intelligence.
A lot has changed, but one thing has remained common -- finding joy in an aspirational 'Make In India' story.
Not since Tendulkar's emergence has there been such hype around a young cricketer whose debut has been anticipated by an entire nation.
Since he landed in this part of the world, fans have been making a beeline for selfies.
In fact, such is the craze that a fan was seen taking a selfie with Sooryavanshi's Rajasthan Royals-appointed guardian, Romi Bhinder, happy to be clicked even if it was with his manager.
Everyone wants a piece of Sooryavanshi, just as everyone once wanted a bit of Tendulkar. The only difference is that it was the pre-internet era in India then, whereas now every fan armed with a smartphone is a digital reporter.
The lines have blurred between 'public figure' and 'public property'. Sooryavanshi's journey has just begun.
