An Under-19 World Cup Final. Cricketing powerhouse India as your opponents. Fourteen year old ‘next Tendulkar’ sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has just smashed your team for the highest score by any batter in any ICC tournament final. A mountainous 412 to chase. Oh yes – and it’s all on global TV. How do you respond?

For Middlesex’s Caleb Falconer, the answer was to focus on the job in hand and keep his eyes purely on the rate needed. The result was a spectacular 115 runs from just 67 balls. It wasn’t enough alas, but it certainly caught the cricket world’s attention.

Harare was already in the rear view Mirror when we settled down to chat at Lords, but it was the place to kick start our conversation. For Caleb, it wasn’t just the tournament itself that was exciting, but the overall experience in Zimbabwe. “Travelling round and even just going to Zim was amazing” he said. It’s close to home, there’s sunshine and it felt like a big deal with all the cameras”.

Like many cricket followers, I had watched the final live on Sky TV, so I wondered if Caleb and his England Under 19 team mates were aware of the interest back home?

Caleb reflected that it was “afterwards when we were more aware than at the time”. He had focused on team and tournament whilst in Zimbabwe. “But when it was over, we realised just how much it had been followed. But during, it was really all about trying to win the World Cup”.

Responding in the only way possible to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

It was a fine achievement to reach the Final of course, but then England ran into the blazing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi firestorm. But as I was to hear, Caleb is a man whose aspiration is to ‘stand up in big moments’ and he certainly did that.

“We felt we could have got there and were up with the rate the whole time. From the moment I got in I was just thinking “can I keep the rate where it needs to be”. It was no time to be overawed for Caleb. “Our goal was to keep going at 8s and see how far we could push it. We lost a few wickets in the middle, but kept going. We came up a bit short, but it showed how much fight we had”. “It would not” he said with some feeling, “have been fair to the strength of our team if we had been bundled out that day. It was testament to our skill level to have got close”.

Whilst of course our conversation was centred on Caleb and Middlesex, we couldn’t not mention THAT Sooryavanshi innings. When it’s raining fours and sixes on you, just how do you keep your focus I asked.

“It got to a point where we’d tried everything and were even laughing” was the reply. “At lunch we were saying this is something special and fair play to him. There are plenty of World Class senior players we’d rather be bowling to right now than this guy”.

A sentiment shared I’m sure by the likes of Matt Henry, Josh Hazlewood, Kagiso Rabada and Rashid Khan who have all been under the Sooryavanshi cosh in the IPL this season. Conceded Caleb “I can’t speak for the whole team, but I was definitely watching in awe”. Is he really only 15 do you think? My question was met with chuckle a knowing chuckle and we moved on.

Mark Lane brings Caleb to Middlesex

Caleb moved to England to pursue a lifelong cricketing dream in 2023, attending Millfield School, in Street, Somerset, on a bursary place. Growing up, the biggest influence on his career “was my Dad (Stuart, an elite cricket coach in Caleb’s home town of Gqeberha, South Africa) who was a role model and big part in my growing up. But after that, Mark Lane (Middlesex Pathway Head Coach) got me involved in Middlesex. I’d gone straight to a training session with Middlesex and he quickly helped me to come here”.

Caleb’s first season, was however “a hard and a tricky period”. It’s all too easy to forget sometimes that a young 16 year old away from home for the first time might find the going off the field a little hard and that will inevitably affect performance on it. It was here that Mark Garroway at Millfield, stepped in and Caleb “settled and got some friends and he helped things click into place”. It was interesting to me, just how much Caleb equated not just hard work, but also the setting and feeling of being “at home in the UK” as being central to his development.

From Sunbury, Esher and East Molesey to Lords

As Caleb has been playing on my doorstep at Sunbury against the likes of Esher and East Molesey, I was keen to know how he rated the step up from the upper end of the Surrey Premiere League to the professional game. Tellingly, Caleb saw any jump there was as “a challenge to raise his game, so more of a ladder than an obstacle”.

With an analysis demonstrating and old head on young shoulders, Caleb felt that “club cricket comes with completely different challenges. In fact, he averaged only half for Sunbury of what he has done for Middlesex 2s. “I train at Middlesex to face the fastest bowling, but then then I turn up on Saturday for a little away swinger with the keeper standing up and I nick off to gulley. It may be a different standard, but not necessarily easier to score runs in club cricket”. There will be many a club cricketer who will nod in agreement to that.

After a decent start in the warm ups, what are Caleb Falconer’s hopes for the season? The response was “to make a big impact on big moments” but delivered in a considered way, rather than simply trotting out a phrase common in the modern lexicon. For him it’s genuinely about “a realistic goal. Not saying an average 50 or to get a thousand runs, but when the big moments arrive I’d like to be the player who stands up and wins games for Middlesex”.

There was no real preference on formats either, but “different formats do create different opportunities”. Caleb is refreshingly ‘format neutral” which is good to hear from a young man who has not just secured his first rookie Middlesex contract, but has also been snapped up at auction by the Southern Braves for the Hundred. His World Cup Final 115 off 67 balls against India will certainly have helped persuade the purse holders of the GMR group (co-owners of Delhi Capitals, Southern Braves and Hampshire) to open their cheque books.

“I would like to be adaptable for all. Being adaptable and consistent in all formats is a challenge in itself” he reasoned.

So what are the expectations of new Middlesex Coach Peter Fulton for Caleb?

The response here was encouraging, although not in the way that might have been expected. “Peter is a lovely guy” said Caleb, “but most conversations have been geared around how I’ve been dealing with all this”. This being sudden celebrity, exposure and heightened expectation. Fulton has been supportive, which is refreshing to hear. “When I’m I the first team”, Caleb said, “will be the time to be more demanding”.

Regarding the Southern Braves opportunity (where he and fellow England U19 Thomas Rew are destined), this was no doubt exciting and Caleb admitted “ I may have to get over being star struck at being in and around international stars that I grew up watching. But I think I will take the opportunity to learn all I can”.

And that response, seemed to sum up a hugely exciting prospect, but also a very level headed young man and cricketer. Another challenge. Another opportunity to up his game. But crucially another opportunity to learn.

Middlesex will be hoping he can learn fast in 2026. I would not bet against him doing just that and finding those big moments to stand up for his county.

Listen to the full interview with Caleb here:

Guerillacricket.com · Caleb Falconer

The post Having stood toe to toe with Sooryavanshi, Caleb Falconer looks to make his mark with Middlesex appeared first on Guerilla Cricket.

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