Sri Lanka great and Rajasthan Royals (RR) head coach Kumar Sangakkara recalled the first time he saw Vaibhav Sooryavanshi bat in the RR nets in IPL 2025. Then, Sangakkara was the director of cricket at Rajasthan Royals, and India legend Rahul Dravid was the head coach at the franchise.
RR was having a training session in Guwahati, and Sangakkara visited to check the proceedings and recalled Sooryavanshi batting on a tough side pitch and facing the likes of Jofra Archer and Sandeep Sharma.
“I first saw Vaibhav when I came in for two weeks to Guwahati. And I went to the side; there was this tiny, horrible little side net when facing up to the likes of Archer and Sandeep Sharma and all the fast bowlers with new balls, and no one really wanted to bat there. And I saw this, Vaibhav walking [and telling him], 'I'll bat.' New balls on, and I could just hear the sound of his bat, like a gunshot every single time.
"And I think he just put Archer to the sword; he put Sandeep Sharma to the sword. So much so that at one time, I think Archer stopped and laughed. Because he was bowling quickly, and this 14-year-old kid was just treating him with absolute disdain,” Sangakkara related the incident on Sky Sports Cricket.
Sangakkara continues by disclosing that he subsequently told Dravid the adolescent star was prepared to join the team.
“And that's when I saw him, and my feedback to Rahul, walking out, was, yeah, ready to play anytime you want him to play. Kid's just incredible,” he said.
Sooryavanshi made his debut in IPL 2025 against Lucknow Super Giants and hammered a six off the first ball he faced in IPL as a 14-year-old. He then scored a century against Gujarat Titans, becoming the youngest to score a ton in IPL and T20 cricket. He ended up making 252 runs with one century and a fifty.
However, Sooryavanshi leveled up in IPL 2026, with 776 runs in 16 games with one century and 5 fifties to his name. He broke Chris Gayle’s record of most sixes in an IPL edition, hitting 72 sixes, to go past his 59 maximums record.
