The 15-year-old freak ready to flay Australia in Test series

He's the 15-year-old turning heads across the cricket world, and Kerry O'Keeffe believes India should "roll the dice" on Vaibhav Suryavanshi and pick the youngster against Australia in next summer's blockbuster five-Test series at home.

After becoming the youngest player bought in an Indian Premier League auction in 2024, Suryavanshi more than justified his $AU195,000 price tag when he belted a 35-ball century as a 14-year-old in an innings described as "unbelievable" by Nasser Hussain.

The former England captain was effusive in his praise, comparing his feats to those of Sachin Tendulkar more than three decades earlier, when the then 16-year-old made his Test debut for India in 1989 before going on to make centuries in England and Australia by the tender age of 18.

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"It is unbelievable for a 14-year-old to do that," Hussain said in conversation with Mike Atherton on Sky Sports last year.

"Things like this do happen in India. You go back to when I was growing up and watching the great Sachin Tendulkar emerge on the scene [at 16 years old]. But this even surpasses that."

Fast forward to this year and the eye-catching knocks have continued.

Now 15, the teenager is fourth on the IPL's leading run-scorers list after belting 404 runs at 40.40 across 10 innings.

He's also striking at 237.64 - easily the highest in this year's IPL for those in the top 20 for run scorers. His season has been headlined by a 37-ball 103, which included five boundaries and 12 sixes.

Oh, and it included a six off Pat Cummins' first ball, with the Australian fast bowler the latest to be dealt the harshest of punishments by the boy from Bihar – a region in the north-east of India on the border of Nepal, not necessarily known for producing international cricketers other than the great MS Dhoni.

It also followed the first ball six off Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in April.

A left-hander with incredible bat speed, Suryavanshi is more David Warner than Sam Konstas.

Rather than playing inventive shots and exposing his stumps with ramps and laps, the left-hander stands and delivers.https://x.com/IPL/status/2050220225686307080?s=20

His timing and balance, including a head that doesn't move, stand out.

O'Keeffe, whose encyclopaedic knowledge and appetite to watch and analyse cricketers make him one of cricket's most astute judges in the game, says he's been blown away by the teenager's rise.

"There's not many players that I'd stay up till after midnight to watch, but he is one of them," O'Keeffe told Wide World of Sports. "I find him mesmerising.

"There's something about him. I'm absolutely enthralled at what might lie ahead for that kid.

"I'd love him to be a three-format player."

Already Suryavanshi's name is being mentioned for higher honours.

Ian Bishop listed him at the top of the order alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal in an alternate Indian XI earlier this week, while former England captain Michael Vaughan was in awe of what he was witnessing in recent weeks.

Vaughan said his tender age shouldn't restrict his rapid rise.

"I think he's going to go on that T20 trip to Ireland," Vaughan said on the Stick to Cricket podcast.

"I'd have him in the squad for the England series in the summer. I absolutely would. If he was 20, he'd be in the team. But because he's 15, we say, 'you've got to be careful.'

"His first ball [against] Jasprit Bumrah, he just flicked him straight into the stands for six."

Vaughan added that Jaiswal, who rates as one of the best openers in the world and averages almost 50 in Test cricket at the age of 24, had been made to look simply OK by his younger teammate at the Rajasthan Royals.

"The new T20 opener is him," Vaughan said. "Even Jaiswal, who's been playing great at the other end, he's at times made him look just OK – and he's outstanding."

Suryavanshi has already learnt from some of the game's best players, with the prodigious talent first coming into the Royals set up under Rahul Dravid.

Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara has since taken over at the Royals.

O'Keeffe, too, pondered what path India's national team would lead him on to begin with, but said he was the most gifted batter at his age he had ever seen.

"[Ricky] Ponting was the most advanced 15-year-old batter I've seen, but this kid is a level above Ponting at 15, and that's why he's so exciting," O'Keeffe said.

"It's his stillness at contact. He doesn't overplay the shot.

"When he hits these sixes over long-on, he's so still at contact. Most 15-year-olds are trying to throw the kitchen sink at the ball, [but] he just hits it for six from a set position. Whether that's just facing hundreds of balls a day, I don't know, but he's a special talent, this kid."

Suryavanshi isn't the first player to make his name in T20 cricket.

Almost two decades ago Warner burst onto the scene in white ball cricket.

Originally pigeonholed as a short-form specialist, a century in Tasmania against New Zealand in his second Test put an end to the theory that Warner was simply a hit-and-giggle type player.

Like Warner, as well as West Indian maverick Chris Gayle and former Indian star Virender Sehwag, Suryavanshi's balance stands out and it's that factor that O'Keeffe believes sets him apart.

"Warner was advanced, but this kid is a level above again," O'Keeffe said.

"He [Warner] played an innings in Tasmania against New Zealand. He got a century on a seaming pitch, and it just showed you how balanced he was. Let the ball go, let the ball come to him, and it dispelled any doubt about whether he was an all-format player.

"He was so much better technically than anybody in the game. And it just convinced people that they got him wrong. 'Don't just see me as a slogger, I'm much more than that.'

"People said, 'Oh, that's just bravado,' but he knew his game, and I think Suryavanshi has that same attitude.

"Suryavanshi is the trendsetter in terms of modern-day, three-format player. He's seen as just a six-hitter and a boundary hitter, I think he's more than that."

While white ball cricket will dominate India's schedule this year, next January and February's five-Test series against Australia looms large on the international schedule.

The series also comes a little more than a year after India's next generation of stars were left shell-shocked by South Africa on home soil, losing 2-0.

Would you rule out Suryavanshi playing against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series?

"I think he and Jaiswal might be an option for them at the top," O'Keeffe said. "I'd roll the dice and go Jaiswal, Suryavanshi, [Shubman] Gill at three and [KL] Rahul somewhere."

Should that occur, Suryavanshi would still be 15 – almost a year younger than Tendulkar when he debuted against Pakistan aged 16 years, 205 days.

O'Keeffe said playing positively was still the most effective way of curtailing Australia's attack, and the former leg-spinner insisted that Suryavanshi's free-scoring approach, where he has already seen off the likes of Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in the IPL, could prove damaging at the top of the order.

"You've got to be positive against [Mitchell] Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood," O'Keeffe said.

"You can't let them get into rhythm and this guy could cause real problems at the top of the order.

"He hit Pat for a six the other night, I saw. They're used to people trying to survive against them, and this guy's going to counterattack them. It's mouth-watering to contemplate that.

"Suryavanshi against one of our best pace attacks ever."

In an era where million-dollar contracts in franchise cricket are once again threatening the future of the red ball game, O'Keeffe said emerging players like Suryavanshi could ensure the longest format of the game thrives into the future.

"Although they talk about the entertainment level of T20, he can add that dimension to a five-day test because, like with Warner and people like that, you want to be there at 11 o'clock to watch him walk out.

"The future of Test cricket can be in folks like him because he can provide that entertainment level that you can get in a five-day game.

"People said you could only get it in a T20 game, but this kid could provide it. I wish he lived in Mosman or Hurstville."