Why hit a single when you can hit the ball for a six?

That was the very question posed by 14-year-old batting sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi to one of his first coaches in professional cricket.

"Vaibhav was hitting sixes and fours off almost every ball," recalls Manish Ojha, a former first-class cricketer for Jharkhand.

"After the session, I said: 'Vaibhav, why are you only hitting boundaries? The state matches are a four-day format and we will need you to take more singles.' He replied: 'Sir, if I can hit a ball for six, why would I take a single off it?' That's when I realised he was ready for the next level."

That six-hitting lit up the most glamourous of cricketing stages on Monday when the teenager became the youngest player to score a century in men's T20 cricket.

Batting for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans, he took down some of the world's best bowlers in a scintillating 38-ball innings that included 11 sixes and seven fours.

Experienced international bowlers Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar and Rashid Khan were treated with the same disdain as those unlucky 12-year-olds who netted with Suryavanshi a couple of years earlier.