Vaibhav Suryavanshi age: What his bone test revealed

A few days ago, just ahead of IPL 2026, cricketer Vaibhav Sooryavanshi turned 15. But he did not even bother to have a cake-cutting ceremony, to focus on his game. However, ever since he slammed a 15-ball 50 for the Rajasthan Royals against the Chennai Super Kings yesterday, the discussion over his age has resurfaced. As per the International Cricket Council (ICC) rules, a player should be at least 15 years old to debut in international cricket. It was a regulation enacted in 2020 to protect young talents from psychological and physical pressure to perform at the highest levels. 

A section of cricket fans alleges that Vaibhav Suryavanshi is older than what he claims, quoting a few-years-old video in which Suryavanshi himself says he would turn 14 in September, 2023. However, according to Vaibhav's father, Sanjeev Suryavanshi, BCCI had done the cricketer's bone test in 2019 to confirm his age. His coach, Manish Ojha, had also said that the test was done when Vaibhav was nine years old. As per various records, Vaibhav's birth year is 2011. Regarding why Vaibhav said his age was 14 in 2023, the coach explained he might have said so, quoting the bone testing process, which adds another year to a sportsman's age. Why so? Here's how it works.

What is bone age testing?
It's an X-ray or MRI scan of a person's wrist and left hand used to assess skeletal maturity. While it is used in general to diagnose growth issues, determine puberty timing, predict final height, and the like, in sports, it is used to determine an athlete's age to curb age fraud. BCCI uses a method called TW3 (Tanner-Whitaker 3), in which a person's bones are compared with reference images of children at different ages to determine the correct age. 

In certain cases, a procedure called A+1 is also applied to the finding to account for any inaccuracies. This means that if the bone test reveals an age of 10, '+1' is also added to determine their eligibility to play. 

Last year, the BCCI decided to conduct an extra test at the junior level to ensure that no cricketer misses out on another season due to the +1 factor. As per this, if a player becomes ineligible solely because of the +1 factor, they can take another bone test the next season to avoid it and play in their age group.

Bone test scenarios
According to the Orthopaedic and Neurosurgery Clinic, Singapore, the bone age test is used in the following scenarios, too:
a) It can evaluate the speed of children's skeletal growth to diagnose conditions that accelerate or delay their growth and development
b)It can monitor and treat genetic growth disorders
c)It can ascertain the final height
d)It is also used for various medico-legal purposes. 
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