Two series, six matches. Two half-centuries, one Player of the Match award, one Player of the Series honour. That’s Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s international CV thus far after an exhilarating, whirlwind July when he took his first, firm steps towards moving from boy wonder to a man for all seasons.

The 15-year-old’s inclusion in the Indian T20I squads for the twin tours of Ireland and England was welcomed with more than a frisson of excitement and expectation. There ought to have been not a semblance of discussion on whether he should feature in the squad if not for his tender age, because especially in IPL 2026, he had showcased his exceptional talent with one bruising masterpiece after another. A season-high tally of 776 runs and the Orange Cap in his first full season should have, as it thankfully eventually did, been an automatic rite of passage to the national side. If there were any misgivings at all, it was because he was 15, not 18 or 19.

Sooryavanshi had battered the best bowlers in the world in the IPL, smashing them to smithereens and often instilling dread and fear as they ran in to deliver the little white orb because even the Cummins’ and the Hazlewoods, the Bumrahs and the Rabadas, knew that the margin for error was miniscule. His consistency reiterated that he was more than just a one-trick pony. He blazed to 15-ball half-centuries for fun, the sixes flowed as if there was an invisible, illegal spring in his bat (something Sanath Jayasuriya was hilariously accused of after his pyrotechnics in the 1996 World Cup) and for the first time in many years (since maybe 1988?), India was transfixed by the breathtaking audacity of a teen phenom.

Not just India, of course. Such is the reach, magnetic pull and popularity of the world’s most celebrated 20-over league that global audiences were treated to the Sooryavanshi magic. To see David take down Goliath is one of the time-tested endearing subtexts to any sporting contest. Tens of thousands willed the young lad to succeed not just for the novelty value but the sheer entertainment he provided, the joy he brought with uninhibited freedom which is often professed in the dressing room but hard to put into practice ball after ball, innings after innings.

Shreyas Iyer and Gautam Gambhir, the new leadership group of the T20I setup, chose to make the restless teenager wait for his baptism. Contrary to expectations that he would be blooded against the Irish in a series India were expected to dominate, Sooryavanshi watched from the sidelines as his colleagues crashed and burned to an unprecedented, seismic 0-2 defeat, their first losses to the Irish in international cricket. He was eventually handed his India cap for the second of five T20Is against Harry Brook’s England, in Manchester on July 4. His maiden outing fetched only 14 runs (off 10 balls), but there were two sixes thrown in, including one off Rajasthan Royals teammate Jofra Archer, a brief first appearance that suggested that he wasn’t out of place in the bustling cauldron of country vs country battle.

Sooryavanshi’s next two outings in England weren’t productive either – 13 off 5 balls in Nottingham, and 15 off 10 in Bristol — after which he was benched for the final game at Rose Bowl in Southampton. He must have watched with mounting frustration as, on an absolute belter, the hosts racked up 257 for three and India replied with a competitive but eventually woefully inadequate 201 for eight. There is no gainsaying how Sooryavanshi would have acquitted himself; whispers were starting to surface that the short ball into the body was a kryptonite of sorts, but there is little sustained evidence to support that theory. England brought the young lad 42 runs off 25 deliveries with one four and five sixes, hardly sensational but definitely not enough to write him off.

In Zimbabwe in the week gone by, however, the international game was privileged to witness the phenomenon reprise his IPL magic. Sooryavanshi has quite a tryst with the Harare Sports Club, where Shreyas’ bunch locked horns with the host nation in a three-match showdown. India had gone through seven winless games in Ireland and England, losing six with one game (the opening fixture against England) abandoned halfway through, and Shreyas desperately needed a victory against his name after a horror start to his T20I captaincy stint.

Happy hunting ground

He needn’t have worried too much, as it turned out. After all, he had the ace in his pack, a young man who dug into his memory bank, dredged up happy thoughts of his time at the Harare Sports Club, and brutalised a solid Zimbabwe pace attack spearheaded by the towering Blessing Muzarabani and the left-armer, Richard Ngarava.

Muzarabani, more than his left-handed counterpart, had played a big part in Zimbabwe making it to the Super 8 of the T20 World Cup earlier this year at the expense of fancied former champions Australia. Standing six feet eight inches (203 cms) in his socks, he used his height to great advantage, fusing bounce with movement to resemble a one-man wrecking ball. Muzarabani finished as the joint second-highest wicket-taker of the tournament; his 13 scalps (only one behind Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakaravarthy) came in only six bowls, his strike rate of 11 balls per wicket bettered among the top-five wicket-takers only by Shadley van Schalkwyk (6.84) of the United States, who also ended up with 13 wickets. He was expected to give India’s batters, who had a miserable run in England, a torrid time, but Sooryavanshi had other plans.

In February, at the same venue, Sooryavanshi had made the Under-19 World Cup final against England a ridiculously one-sided affair well before the halfway stage of the contest. After Ayush Mhatre chose to bat, the left-handed opener went on the rampage, tearing into the shell-shocked English boys with utter disdain.

Boundaries cascaded off his bat with remarkable regularity; he reached his 50 off 32 deliveries, took only 23 more to bring up his century, and went from 100 to 150 in a mere 16 balls. By the time he was dismissed, gloving a slog-sweep to the wicketkeeper, he had hurtled to 175, from just 80 deliveries, with 15 power-packed fours and an equal number of towering sixes. He had accounted for 69.72% of the runs India had scored (251) till he was at the crease. Sooryavanshi’s blitzkrieg ended off the third delivery of the 26th over, just past the halfway stage of the Indian innings. Who knows what he would have finished with had he batted for even a half-hour more.

In Sooryavanshi’s corner on that occasion was Hrishikesh Kanitkar as the head coach, with former India left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi too travelling as the bowling/spin coach. And, of course, there was V.V.S. Laxman , the wonderfully affable and positive-talking Hyderabadi who has quietly elevated the profile of the Centre of Excellence (previously the National Cricket Academy) without getting either his due or craving for approbation and plaudits, who travelled for the second half of the Under-19 World Cup as the team’s mentor, among other things.

While Kanitkar wasn’t in Harare this last week, both Laxman and Joshi were. With Gambhir and his support staff taking a break ahead of the Test tour of Sri Lanka beginning in a little over a week’s time, Laxman stepped in as the interim head coach, like he has done quite a few times in the past, with Joshi for support. Perhaps, the familiarity with the ground, previous dizzying success at the venue and a sense of ease around the coaching staff that has overseen his progress over the last year and a bit helped calm Sooryavanshi down. He was clearly in his elements, reprising the destructive avatar that made him such a compelling attraction during the IPL.

India’s youngest international cricketer, male or female, became the youngest half-centurion in all T20Is when he lashed an even 50 in the first encounter on Thursday, July 23. The half-century came off only 18 deliveries, though he saw off the Muzarabani threat with commonsense rather than bravado. India were chasing a modest target of 126 and Sooryavanshi’s early blitz powered them to a commanding victory with 40 deliveries to spare, though the Player-of-the-Match award went to pacer Mayank Yadav for his spell of two for 18. After a whirlwind nine-ball 20 in Saturday’s game two, Sooryavanshi went into overdrive in the final, dead rubber on Sunday. In the clearest indication yet that he has a terrific cricket brain nestled in that young, still developing head, Sooryavanshi batted with tremendous maturity and intelligence on a worn surface where the bounce was uneven and where the ball didn’t exactly gush on to the bat.

No half-measures

Sooryavanshi picked the balls to attack with care and diligence, but when he went on the offensive, he didn’t hold back. There were no half-measures, his commitment to the stroke indisputably maximal. Abhishek Sharma fell cheaply again and the normally fluent Ishan Kishan struggled for timing, but Sooryavanshi seemed immune to the vagaries of the pitch.

His fifty appeared measured, yet it came off just 31 deliveries; as he raced into the 80s, visions of a maiden century loomed until he fell to a wonderful catch in the deep by Brad Evans. His final returns – 81 off 49, eight fours, four sixes. As India completed a comfortable 35-run victory to seal a 3-0 series sweep, there was only one candidate for both the match and the series honours. Welcome to the world of international cricket, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. And what’s the fuss all about, right? Laxman’s personality doesn’t lend itself to hyperbole, so when he says something, you know that that’s precisely what he means. He was glowing in his praise of the young lad, extolling his maturity and cricket smarts not just during the last week but over the last six months, from the Under-19 World Cup onwards.

“He’s got a long career ahead, and he has the attitude and mindset to improve every day,” the magician with wrists of steel proclaimed. “I’m sure he will progress and break all the records at the international level. He’s got all the potential and ability to do that.”

Over to you now, young man, to prove the great man right.

The surname Tillakaratne carries considerable weight in Sri Lankan cricket. It evokes memories of Hashan Tillakaratne’s dependability, Tillakaratne Dilshan’s innovation, World Cup triumphs, and decades of service to the national side.

Now, another Tillakaratne is trying to earn that name on merit. Seventeen-year-old Limansa Tillakaratne, Dilshan’s daughter, is touring India with Sri Lanka’s Under-19 women’s side for three T20s and three One-Day fixtures, in preparation for the U-19 Women’s World Cup, which Bangladesh and Nepal will jointly host in early 2027.

ALSO READ: Limansa, daughter of Sri Lanka icon Tillakaratne Dilshan, carries his name and legacy with pride

She hopes to become the latest member of a cricketing lineage while carving out an identity that is distinctly her own.

It’s been a steep learning curve for the outfit in Chennai, with Limansa herself, a leg-spinner, proving expensive with the ball and registering three ducks in the middle order.

Sri Lanka gave a better account of itself in the second game, bringing the margin of defeat down from 93 runs in the first match to 11 in the second, with an improved effort in the field. Limansa even struck timber as she sent back the dangerous Ira Jadhav. India won the third fixture by seven wickets to take the series, with Sri Lanka’s batting weaknesses costing the side.

Catching the action

Following his daughter’s run carefully, about 600 kilometres away in Hyderabad, is her father, Dilshan, currently with TG20 franchise Khammam Aces for the inaugural edition of the league. Long distance defines this father-daughter relationship.

“When I started cricket, he was actually not in Australia (where the family moved to after his retirement in 2016). I think he was in India and I was playing locally, just for fun. I was bowling, and the ball was looping. I didn’t have a clue about cricket then.

“My mom (Lankan actor Manjula Thilini) said if I enjoyed it, I should keep at it, and she’d send video clips of me playing. One day, he saw something he liked and thought there was talent there work with. That’s how I started playing,” Limmy, as she is fondly called, told The Hindu after her game at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Memories of those early videos draw out a chuckle from Dilshan.

“Limmy began playing at home in the garden. She’d normally hit tennis balls. I didn’t take it so seriously then. I wanted my son to play. After my retirement in 2016, we moved to Australia as a family. I continued playing Legends League and was travelling and my wife would tell me about Limmy’s thing with cricket. She was very keen. During break time in school, she’d play with the boys. One of the teachers picked up on that and took her and my wife to a local club where she signed up and started training. My wife then sent me the videos,” Dilshan told this publication.

“I still have those early videos and still have a good laugh when I revisit them. She bowled all the wrong lengths, used the wrong arm. The ball would bounce thrice. But she was so keen. She’d wake up early to watch matches regardless of her schedule. It was evident she wanted to do something in the game. So, we decided to work hard on that for one year. Every day, two to three hours after school, we worked on her game,” the 49-year-old added.

The youngest

The results then trickled in. In 2021, Limmy, aged 12, became the youngest female cricketer to play at the premier level when she made the U-16 squad for Cricket Victoria.

She then broke into the U-19 Victoria side and played regularly for Melbourne Cricket Club. Dilshan even fondly remembers a century she scored for Victoria. But then, the family patriarch threw his eldest a googly.

“We decided to take her to Sri Lanka. I took her to my club, Bloomfield (Cricket and Athletic Club) in Colombo. We spent time working on her bowling. We tried her out in the U-19 provincial side, where she did really well. Selectors then wanted to pick her, and she made the team for the inaugural U-19 Asia Cup in 2024 and the U19 World Cup in Malaysia last year,” he remembered.

Sri Lanka made the Super Six stage of the World Cup but couldn’t progress to the knockouts, finishing fifth in the final standings. But one memory stands out.

“Sri Lanka beat Australia in the Super Six match, and Limmy won the Player-of-the-Match Award,” Dilshan exclaimed, the irony not lost on him. She took a wicket, giving away just 18 runs in her four overs. She also took two catches and effected a run out in that low-scoring fixture where Sri Lanka defended a paltry 99/8 with a 12-run win.

She eventually finished that tournament with seven wickets, the second-highest wicket-taker for her side behind left-arm spinner Chamodi Praboda’s nine scalps.

Obvious choice

For a young bowler, leg-spin isn’t an obvious choice of speciality.

“She always bowled the googly, and it came naturally for her,” Dilshan, a handy offie himself, explained.

“I thought, developing it into leg-spin would be more advantageous for her, and for any side she might be a part of. It took us a year,” he added, saying small but smart interventions as a coach are needed early on in a player’s trajectory to maximise their success as a cricketer.

“In my bowling, I’m trying to work on my speed. I am trying to bowl flatter and get the ball to turn more,” Limmy explained.

With Dilshan as coach, the conversation turned to batting soon enough. She started lower down the order but soon began opening for her side and then moved into the middle order, especially in 50-over games. Ask her about what tricks her dad has shared with her in the nets, and she asks, “You’re talking about the Dilscoop, right?”

“We’ve been practising it. I practised it first with my dad, and I tried a few in the nets, and it came out really well. I’m just waiting for the right ball in the middle to play it,” she added cheekily.

Country first

Cricketing migrations to Australia are the norm, not away from it. For the women’s game, Australian systems have been the holy grail, led by a senior women’s side that is head and shoulders above its competition. But for Dilshan, that Sri Lankan crest he had worn on his chest for nearly two decades meant more.

“As a Sri Lankan captain, I’m happy for my daughter to play for Sri Lanka. Yes, we live in Australia. Every facility is there. The pathways are very good, and there is no difference between boys and girls. But as a Sri Lankan, I do want her to play for Sri Lanka,” Dilshan stated.

His wife was unsure about the move. But Limmy immediately got on board.

“I remember the first day she had a trial. We landed in Colombo at 11.30 or 12 o’clock at night. It was 2 am by the time we got home. She had a game the next morning. She played, took four wickets, and scored fifty-odd. On the way back home, she threw up while on the road. The time difference and the strain of it were a bit much. But she was ready. She always delivers what I ask of her. There’s no complaining or saying she’s tired,” Dilshan proudly declared.

When performances didn’t go her way, Dilshan and Limmy were out late to hit the nets.

“Even if she’s come back late from a game, if she hasn’t performed well, she’ll say, ‘ Thaathi (Sinhalese term for father), let’s go to the nets.’ That could be at 10 pm. I would have to book indoor nets, and we’d go and train for an hour.

“You can see the change in where her mum is now. She was unsure before, but she’s so happy with how Limmy has come along,” he added.

For Limmy, it is also an opportunity to carry on her father’s legacy.

“I’m actually really proud to be his daughter and to start a career, not because of him, but inspired by him really, and I’m really happy that I have this figure behind me, supporting me and always there for me whenever I need him.”

Try and be better than me

When she made the national U-19 side, Limmy distinctly remembers Dilshan saying, “You’re following in my footsteps. You have to be better than me. Try and be better than me!”

A day after The Hindu caught up with Limmy, Dilshan looks at her laughing on video as she brushes off the pressure those lines come with and can’t help but smile.

“She’s totally different from me. She’s a leg spinner, I’m an off spinner. I’m right-handed, she’s left-handed. My only message to her has always been that she needs to be a good cricketer in all three departments. When she started playing, she was a very poor fielder. As her father and one of the best fielders in the world, I was a bit disappointed when she would drop catches. We set a target for that too. I heard she was good in one of these games and put in some good stops in the field.”

For Limmy, Thaathi is the north star. Coaches at different levels may give her countless tips, but nothing happens without her father hearing about it and giving his thoughts on its validity. That means the cricketer and coach in Dilshan is always on, but it’s a relationship bedrock he has come to savour.

“I am quite happy that Limansa listens to me. Even when coaches try to change something, she will bring it to me first. I always encourage trying everything. If it doesn’t work, go back to your basics!”

Huge relief

As a father, seeing systems emerge for his daughter to discover her cricketing sensibilities within is a huge relief for Dilshan.

What Limmy can only learn from someone like her father, which is perhaps most important, is managing expectations.

“I’ve told her that sometimes she might get dropped, even if her performances are okay. It’s happened to me too. In 2008, I was benched. I went back to domestic cricket, scored heavily, and won games, but still didn’t get highlighted enough to make it back. I was batting at No.6 or 7. I then pitched myself as an opener to the management. I knew Sanath (Jayasuriya) was retiring in the 2009 season, and that space was there to take. I went back to the domestic scene and scored heavily, batting till the 25th and 26th over.”

“In 2008-09, I got an opportunity to play as an opener, that too in the squad, not the eleven, when we toured Pakistan (now infamous for the attack on the Lankan player bus in Lahore). I piled up runs, got 140-odd, and even won Player of the Series. But I got that chance because Upul Tharanga pulled something just before the toss in the opening game. That opening slot was mine thereafter till I retired. I took risks, but they worked. I always tell Limmy that sometimes, as cricketers, we have to take risks. She knows disappointments, drops will come and understands they are part of the package.”

In the middle of a crucial school year, the Tillakaratne household has allowed her to put schoolwork on hold as she prepares to make the team for the U-19 World Cup once more.

Assignments are being sent from wherever she’s playing in the meantime. The big questions are a headache for after January and Limmy is happy to just focus on being on a cricket field full-time.