Rajasthan Royals' youngster Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued his impressive form in IPL 2026 once again when he played against Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 held at Mullanpur.
The teenage sensation is not even 15 years old yet he continued his attacking style of play and gave an impressive knock. Unfortunately for him, he got out for just 96 runs which was just… shy of a century by 4 runs.
Two days after his knock of 97 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator match, the young sensation once again proved his class on a very important day for Rajasthan Royals. With his batting prowess, Sooryavanshi helped Rajasthan Royals post a score of 214/6 in 20 overs.
The youngster is a left-handed batter who played a controlled innings and showed some courage. In the beginning, his batting was quite restrained. However, he attacked the bowlers ruthlessly in the second phase of his innings.
Sooryavanshi played smart cricket first, then went for the jugular
When he faced Gujarat Titans’ bowling, which had Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, and Jason Holder, he didn’t rush into anything. He began, bit by bit.
He got to his fifty in 31 balls, and that was actually the slowest half-century of his IPL career so far, but once he was set… he switched gears pretty fast. From there, he smashed on and added another 45 runs in only 16 balls.
Overall, the innings had eight fours and seven sixes. As soon as he found his rhythm, it was basically, attack mode. Almost every bowler got targeted at some point, and Gujarat Titans stayed under pressure for most of the spell.
Also, there was a little bit of luck for him too, because Sai Sudharsan dropped his catch off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling. And fair enough, Sooryavanshi didn’t waste it, he stayed on the front foot.
Young batter breaks major IPL records
With this innings, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi stacked up multiple big milestones in IPL history, like really quick.
He became the fastest Indian batter to reach 1000 IPL runs, and that actually broke Sai Sudharsan’s previous record. Vaibhav reached the mark in just 23 innings, which is wild.
On top of that, he also became the youngest batter to cross 1000 runs in IPL. And there was one more special thing… he hit 1000 runs in only 440 balls, so overall he became the fastest player in terms of balls faced as well.
This knock also helped his Orange Cap standing, because now he sits at 776 runs from 16 matches this season. So yeah, he’s right up there.
Sunil Gavaskar points out one weakness
Even with everyone praising him again, Sunil Gavaskar—former India captain—still pointed to one thing bowlers might try going forward.
When the youngster got dismissed again, this time in that nervous 90s zone, Gavaskar shared his thought during commentary.
Gavaskar said on air:
“All the bowlers would be saying, ‘We’ve found a weakness'. Bowl a short ball when he's in the 90s. Earlier, it won't work. If he's in the 90s, bowl a short ball, keep a deep third, and you'll get him out.”
Besides Sooryavanshi, Rajasthan Royals also got good support from Ravindra Jadeja and Donovan Ferreira. Jadeja finished unbeaten on 45, while Ferreira made 38 as well, which helped the team push past the 200-run line.
So even though he missed out on another hundred, Sooryavanshi once more showed why he’s turning into one of the biggest stars of IPL 2026.