The boy from Bihar who is drawing comparison with the boy from Bowral

One could only sympathise with the reader in question, who bemoaned that “this lad seems to be more successful in his chosen field”.

“Yes, but can he do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke,” someone else wondered, the proverbial benchmark of sporting quality.

Were it possible for Sooryavanshi to “do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke” – presumably the covers would be on, however? – you can bet your bottom dollar that he would somehow find a way.

In plundering 97 from just 29 balls with 12 sixes for Rajasthan Royals against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League eliminator on Wednesday, Sooryavanshi lifted his tally of sixes at this year’s tournament to 65, eclipsing Gayle’s 59 in the 2012 IPL.

He added another seven on Friday in a pedestrian – by his standards – knock of 96 from 47 balls against Gujarat Titans, in the process becoming the fastest to 1,000 IPL runs (from 440 balls, beating Andre Russell’s record of 566).

It was around 18 months ago that Sooryavanshi first penetrated the consciousness of the cricketing public here.

Then, he was the 13-year-old picked up at the IPL auction for a little over £100,000, the latest supremely gifted youngster from the sub-continent to be fast-tracked to the bright lights.

Sooryavanshi hit his first ball in the competition for six, struck a 35-ball century in his third innings and then took down England in an U19 one-day international in Worcester last July, scoring 143 from 78 balls with 10 sixes.

His taste for our bowlers continued at the U19 World Cup in Harare in February, when he hammered 175 from 80 balls with 15 sixes to near single-handedly win India the final.

This spring, along with his terminator innings in the IPL eliminator, Sooryavanshi has hit a 36-ball hundred against Sunrisers too, with 12 sixes.

He also became the fastest man – or rather boy – to reach 1,000 T20 runs full stop (from 473 balls, the next-fastest being 533 by Australia’s Mitchell Owen).

He twice reached 50 in just 15 deliveries, against Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers, as well as striking the first balls he received from Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins, two modern greats, for six.

They already knew plenty about Sooryavanshi in his home state of Bihar, nestled in the north-east of India, bordering Nepal.

As a child, he used to hit 500 balls a day, displaying a dedication to practice that recalled Don Bradman’s hours spent throwing a ball against a water tank and hitting the rebound with a stump.

The comparisons with ‘The Boy from Bowral’ do not end there. Tom Moody, the former Australia batsman and IPL-winning coach, said in the wake of Sooryavanshi’s innings on Wednesday that ‘The Boy from Bihar’ was the closest he could think of to Bradman himself.

“I don’t think ‘incredible’ is a strong enough word,” said Moody. “I am trying to get my head around how to explain him.

“What we are witnessing is something that I don’t think we have seen in our lifetime in this format of the game, or indeed in any format of the game.

"We have seen some amazing things, but not to this extreme.

"The only thing I can take it back to is what Bradman was doing.

"The separation between Sooryavanshi and the next best is similar to Bradman’s average of nearly 100 and the drop of around 60 to the next best.”

Completely different formats, it is worth pointing out, in a completely different era of the game as well.

Moody was referring, one assumes, to Sooryavanshi’s strike-rate, which is around 20 per cent better than his T20 rivals. He hits a six roughly once every four balls – another in the eliminator would have seen him break Gayle’s record for the fastest IPL hundred, only for the teenager to hole out on the third-man boundary, as he did again on Friday.

Unlike Gayle, the self-styled “Universe Boss”, the now-called “Universe Baby Boss” is physically unremarkable at about 5ft 8ins. He generates much of his power through a high back-lift and notable bat speed; unsurprisingly, he has cited another great West Indian, Brian Lara, as his favourite player.

One thing you notice when watching Sooryavanshi is how still his head is even in the throes of swinging himself almost off his feet.

He picks up length very quickly and attacks with a vengeance; in stark contrast to Bradman, he hits plenty in the air.

There has been debate about his age, fuelled by an interview he gave in which he suggested he might really be 17, with birth records not as rigorously kept in India’s rural parts.

Either way, he has the face of someone who should rightly be trying to get off with Debra Winfield, or her equivalent, rather than pummelling the world’s greatest bowlers as though they were fodder.