New Chandigarh: Rajasthan Royals coach Kumar Sangakkara believes that young talent Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is now ready to be included in the Indian squad after his remarkable IPL 2026 performance which established him as one of the best young cricketers to have ever graced the game.
The 15-year-old ended the season with an astonishing 776 runs in 16 games, having struck at an amazing rate of 237.30 runs per hundred balls, which helped Rajasthan reach Qualifier 2 before they were beaten by Gujarat Titans in New Chandigarh on Saturday.
After watching the teenager pummel some of the best bowlers in the world, Sangakkara feels that an India call-up is now a matter of when, not if.
“Given what Vaibhav has done this season against some of the greatest fast bowlers that the world has, I think he is more than ready to take whatever challenge that we throw at him,” Sangakkara said following the team’s loss to Gujarat. “I am certain that he will get a national call-up very, very soon. He has played with great maturity and shoulder the responsibility of opening partnership quite well for us this season.”
Sooryavanshi showed his true temperament yet again during Qualifier 2 where he hammered an outstanding 96 off just 47 balls on a very tricky two-paced wicket. His ability to adapt to the challenging circumstances against some of the tallest and most intimidating fast bowlers in world cricket who were trying to target him with the short ball, and despite wickets falling regularly at the other end, ensured that Rajasthan had something to chase in the Qualifier 2 encounter.
Sangakkara attributes the youngster’s tremendous rise to his approach to the game and cricketing intelligence.
“Yes, I think that we’ve got a plan for him,” Sangakkara explained. “We’re not cluttering his mind at all. He comes into our team meetings, contributes and listens, and does a lot of homework. He practices well, watches a lot of videos of opposition bowlers and gets ready for them accordingly. We’re not trying to plant anything extra in his mind. I think he just has to keep it clear and bat with that same courage.”
Rajasthan exceeded all expectations to reach the playoffs in ninth position last season and were able to do so once again, even with injury setbacks like losing Sam Curran for the season and fitness problems for Riyan Parag and Ravindra Jadeja late in the tournament.
Sangakkara also praised the performances of the emerging players in the Rajasthan team and called on both Yash Raj Punja and Brijesh Sharma to build on their debut season in the IPL.
“I think every one of these players has performed very well and they should be extremely proud of themselves,” he said. “I think Yash had an amazing season and Brijesh also had a very good season, but I want to give credit to everyone around him, from Riyan to Dhruv also – Dhruv always gets underrated sometimes – and then Donovan, Jofra, Jadeja in some parts and Shubham in a couple of games for us. Everyone who came in, always gave their best and so to be able to achieve that [playoffs] this season having finished 9th last year and to drag ourselves here is, I think a great achievement. I don’t think there is any question, we’ve still got some runs to run through these players, but I’m very, very proud of them. They’re a truly wonderful bunch, they are very skilled and they worked very, very hard for us to get here and they’re a very special team.”
Sangakkara also complimented Riyan Parag on his debut season as captain of the Rajasthan Royals.
“I think Riyan’s first season as captain has been phenomenal,” Sangakkara stated. “He has handled the team well, handled the on-field decisions well; I think that is something that will also grow and develop with all the players and with Riyan himself and the management team we have around him and he will just come back stronger and we will all come back stronger.
“No one really gave us the opportunity or rather we weren’t even given a chance to even qualify for this tournament at the start.
“But this just shows how cricket can do to you, if you play well and if you have fun playing this game you’re going to perform quite special things.”
(IANS)
