Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is only 15 years old, but the maturity the player has shown is way beyond his age. His sensational batting has helped him earn the ‘Boss Baby’ tag. In the Indian Premier League 2026, the teenager represented Rajasthan Royals and won the Orange Cap with 776 runs to his name. He also hit a record 72 sixes in the season, comfortably surpassing previous topper Chris Gayle’s 59 maximums from the 2012 season. RR head coach Kumar Sangakkara, a legendary wicketkeeper batter from Sri Lanka, recently talked about Sooryavanshi’s massive declaration ahead of a chase against Lucknow Super Giants.
Sangakkara revealed that Sooryavanshi claimed that he would hit around 13 sixes in the innings and ended up smashing 10.
“This year, we were playing Lucknow Super Giants. We had to chase 220 (221) to win the game and stay in the competition. We fielded first. Vaibhav is walking out, he winks at me and says, ‘Coach, don’t worry. It’s done.’ He walks into the dressing room and tells Donovan Ferreira and Lhuan-dre Pretorius, ‘Listen, the two of you. I am going to hit 13 sixes now. And once I do that, you just do the rest.’ He hit 10. And when he was on five sixes, Donovan and Pretorius thought, ‘What is he talking about?’ Then they suddenly sat down and said, ‘We better start counting this down because this kid is actually going to do it.’ So, that is the level of confidence he has,” said Kumar Sangakkara on Sky Sports.
The incident took place during the mid-innings break of RR’s IPL 2026 game against LSG at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, on May 19.
RR’s stand-in captain Yashasvi Jaiswal won the toss and opted to bowl in the game. However, a good batting display from LSG helped the side post 220 for 5.
Sooryavanshi smashed 93 off just 48 balls as Rajasthan Royals completed the chase with seven wickets in hand and five balls to spare. Dhruv Jurel scored 53 not out off 38, helping the cause of his side.
RR had a good run in IPL 2026 as they reached Qualifier 2, where they lost to Gujarat Titans.
