Wisden Cricket Monthly issue 98 – Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: How one kid's genius is changing the game

Anjali Doshi speaks to the people who have helped build the phenomenon of Sooryavanshi, before Ben Gardner considers the 15-year-old's wider impact and Jo Harman-McGowan gives a brief history of sporting prodigies who were touted for greatness before they'd reached adulthood.

Elsewhere, Phil Walker reacts to the Ben Stokes crisis which has engulfed English cricket, we reveal Test cricket's all-time 'Average XI', and Raf Nicholson looks forward to the first-ever women's Test match at Lord's.

Ed Joyce reflects on his career of split allegiances, Mo Bobat tells us how he and Andy Flower masterminded RCB's back-to-back IPL titles, Lauren Filer lifts the lid on her pace addiction, and Andrew Miller says the clock is ticking on five-day Test matches.

We also consider if England's latest Test opener Emilio Gay can succeed where Zak Crawley failed, Lawrence Booth argues Bangladesh deserve more recognition, Daniel Norcross explores what the 'eye test' actually means, and we cover all the biggest stories from the men's and women's game across 17 pages of dedicated county coverage.

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"He’s actually changing what a good-length ball means because he doesn’t come forward, which means good length for him is completely different to every other player playing at the moment."
Zubin Bharucha, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s coach and mentor, explains why the teenager is so hard to bowl to

"Perhaps he’s not the best batter in the IPL in spite of being 15, but because of it. T20 cricket is a ‘no fear’ game. Who better to take advantage than a kid, with no fear of failure to get rid of in the first place?
Ben Gardner on Sooryavanshi's extraordinary IPL

"In so many ways, that five-day thrill has already been lost. For every Test that has all results possible going into the final hour, there are 10 abject surrenders."
Andrew Miller argues the clock is ticking on five-day Tests

"Stokes may belong to us, but we don’t own him. We’re talking here about a flawed, deeply human public figure who has injected more joy and hope into the soul of this weird movement than any other English cricketer of the last 20 years."
Phil Walker reacts to the latest instalment of the unmissable Ben Stokes saga

"When the finger goes up it’s wild. Caps are being thrown in the air, people are trying to tackle Norts, and he’s literally doing laps of the ground. When we walked off me and a few of the other guys just started laughing – we couldn’t fathom what we’d just seen."
Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson on his teammates Tom Norton's record-breaking hat-trick in 'The Diary'

"Of all Test batters with at least 20 innings at Nos.5-6 whose careers were primarily spent in that role, only the West Indies’ Keith Arthurton has a more ‘average’ average than Bairstow’s Jonny Bairstow takes the No.6 spot in Test cricket's 'Average XI'."
Jeff Thomas delves deep into the data to reveal Test cricket's all-time 'Average XI'

"You can’t win the competition at the auction, because a lot of that probably does a disservice to the players and everything else that goes with it. But I do think you can probably lose an IPL at an auction."
Mo Bobat on RCB's back-to-back IPL titles

"Off the field Gay was refreshingly talkative, eyes a-sparkle, signing autographs – trying, as he put it, “to absorb all the emotions” of the occasion; while on it, he hinted at a game with the right alchemy of technical acuity and strokemaking touch to give the accursed job of being an England Test opener a pretty good go."
Phil Walker considers if Emilio Gay can crack the toughest job in cricket