Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is only 15 years old but he has a calm head over his shoulders and in IPL 2026 has shown lot of maturity beyond his age. As an opener for Rajasthan Royals, there have been matches where he has batted according to the situation.
He recently gave an insight to his mindset when he revealed how he told a ‘stressed’ Kumar Sangakkara, head coach of Rajasthan Royals to take it easy. This happened during the innings break of Royals must-win game against Lucknow Super Giants on May 19 in Jaipur.
RR fighting for a playoff spot came into the match after three successive defeats. Stand-in skipper for RR, Yashasvi Jaiswal opted to bowl, as LSG put up a competitive total of 220 for 5. Sooryavanshi says just before walking out to bat for the chase, he glanced towards Sangakkara who looked stressed, and promised him that he would finish the job.
“Actually, we were not doing good in the last three matches. I watched him (Sangakkara), he was under lots of pressure. So, when the opponents scored 220. I was padding up. His faced looked like he was in a lot of tension and taking a lot of stress. But I was confident that today I will back my game and do well. So I told him that it will be done. It’s not a long score according to the wicket,” Sooryavanshi said.
Sooryavanshi lived up to his promise by scoring a stunning 93 off just 38 balls. He smashed seven fours and 10 sixes in a match-winning knock as RR chased down the target with ease, winning by seven wickets and five balls remaining.
With seven wins and 14 points, RR are placed fourth in the points table and have one more game on Sunday against Mumbai Indians.
