Rajasthan Royals teenage tornado Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who hit 97 off 29 balls to lead his team to victory in their Indian Premier League Eliminator, was praised as a generational talent by Sunrisers Hyderabad assistant coach James Franklin on Wednesday.
In addition, the 15-year-old surpassed Chris Gayle’s 2012 record of 59 sixes in an IPL season, breaking the former West Indies captain’s record with 65.
Franklin said Sooryavanshi’s potential was terrifying, as his effort helped Rajasthan win by 47 runs, keeping their dreams of making it to the final alive.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever seen a talent like this. It’s freakish what he’s doing at the moment. To think that he’s potentially got 25 years left in the career, it’s quite scary. He’s only going to get better, stronger and more mature with how he bats. So, it’s just devastating at the moment,” Reuters quoted him telling reporters.
Despite hitting 12 sixes in his innings, including three consecutive ones off Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins, the season’s top run scorer was unable to surpass Gayle’s record for the fastest IPL century (30 balls).
This season, Sooryavanshi has scored 680 runs at a strike rate of 242.85. Last year, at the age of 14, he smashed the first ball of his IPL debut for a six and went on to become the youngest player to achieve a Twenty20 century.
“There’s a very small margin where you could bowl to him. He’s an amazing talent that he can start playing around with it (bowling variations) and then start to cause the bowlers to have to go to other places, which tend to then go back into his strength,” Franklin said.
The winner of Friday’s Qualifier 2 between Rajasthan and Gujarat Titans will advance to Sunday’s final against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
