Rajasthan Royals' (RR) 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi endured a rare failure in the IPL 2026 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday (April 13) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, falling for a golden duck.
Opening the innings, the southpaw was dismissed on the very first ball he faced by SRH pacer Praful Hinge, who was making his IPL debut.
Hinge delivered a hard-length ball that hurried Sooryavanshi, resulting in a top-edged pull shot that was safely caught by Salil Arora behind the stumps.
This was a rare off-day for the teenager, who had dominated big names like Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood earlier in the season.
Following his dismissal, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan reiterated his unique "theory" regarding Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, suggesting that the youngster deliberately targets high-profile bowlers rather than lesser-known ones.
"So my theory for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi isn't wrong ;)," Pathan wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
After his post left the fans wondering about his theory, Pathan quoted his tweet from April 10 which read: “Does Vaibhav suryavanshi targets big bowlers purposely? I like to think so”, and he called it “My Theory”.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has recorded several crucial innings for RR this season, including 78 off 26 balls against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, 52 off 17 against Chennai Super Kings, and 39 off 14 against Mumbai Indians.
With 200 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 263.15, the swashbuckling left-hander currently sits in third place in the Orange Cap race. He will be keen to bounce back in RR’s next fixture against KKR at Eden Gardens on April 19.
