New Delhi. In the world of cricket, age is just a number, but when a 15-year-old child takes to the 22-yard strip to represent the country, history is automatically written. Indian cricket’s rising star Vaibhav Suryavanshi received his Indian cap in the second T20 match against England in Manchester on Saturday. With this debut he destroyed many big records. He not only became the youngest male player to play international cricket for India, but also became the youngest male cricketer in the world to play in the T20 format for an ICC Full Member country. Despite making his debut at the age of just 15 years and 99 days, Suryavanshi became only the second youngest male cricketer to play international cricket for a full member country. About thirty years before that, i.e. in October 1996, Pakistan had given a chance to Hasan Raza in the Test match against Zimbabwe, who held the world record for the youngest male cricketer.
However, if we talk about Associate or Non-Full Member countries, then Vaibhav Sooryavanshi does not even make it to the top-10. Small European countries play hundreds of T20 International matches every year, many of which are played by semi-professional players, making it quite challenging to keep accurate records. According to available data, Romania’s Marian Gherasim is the youngest player to play men’s international cricket, having made his debut at the age of just 14 years and 16 days. Gherasim played a total of 12 matches and was last seen on the field in the year 2022.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi could not break Hasan Raza’s record.
The history of women’s cricket is even more surprising. When Pakistan’s Sajida Shah made her debut in the ODI match against Ireland on 23 July 2000, she was only 12 years and 171 days old. This record still makes her the youngest international player (both men and women) in the history of cricket.
Talking about the top players who made their debut at the youngest age among the full member countries, the name of Pakistan’s Hasan Raza is at the top, who made his debut in the Faisalabad Test against Zimbabwe on 24 October 1996 at the age of 14 years and 227 days. Just six days later, on 30 October 1996, he made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in Quetta at the age of 14 years and 233 days. India’s Vaibhav Suryavanshi comes third in the list, who made his T20 debut on 26 June 2026 in Belfast, Ireland at the age of 15 years and 99 days. Mohammad Sharif of Bangladesh made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in Harare on 7 April 2001 at the age of 15 years and 116 days, who is at fourth place in this list.
What was the future of these stars who shone at the international level at such a young age?
Especially what happened to Hasan Raza and Sajida Shah, this story is very interesting and a little emotional. Hasan Raza was a very successful run-scoring machine in the domestic circuit of Pakistan. He scored 13,949 runs in first-class cricket at an impressive average of 44.70 with 36 centuries. But, despite having such an excellent domestic record, his career was very short and full of ups and downs. He was in and out of the Pakistan national team for nine years between 1996 and 2005 and could play only 7 Tests and 16 ODI matches due to poor form. Frustrated with the lack of consistent opportunities, Raza joined the unofficial ‘Indian Cricket League’ (ICL) in 2007, which permanently closed all his chances of returning to the national team. Later in 2018, his name came into big controversy when in an undercover documentary he was caught on camera discussing pitch tampering plans with alleged match fixers. Although he denied his direct involvement in this, his image suffered huge damage. Today, Hasan Raza, who is more than 44 years old, is living a life of anonymity, completely away from the limelight.
On the other hand, Mallika of Records Sajida Shah’s international career lasted for more than ten years, in which she played 2 Tests, 60 ODIs and 8 T20 matches. Sajida took 7 wickets for just 4 runs against Japan in 2003, which is still the best bowling analysis in the history of women’s ODI cricket. But despite such big records and starting at such a young age, his career also ended prematurely. When he played his last match for Pakistan in 2010, he was only 22 years old. After this, she remained away from the eyes of the selectors and today she has completely retired from professional sports.
