Rajasthan Royals’ Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara, shared his first impression of the young talent Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The former Sri Lankan skipper said the sound from Suryavanshi’s bat was like a gunshot and praised how effortlessly he played his shots.
The 14-year-old was bought by the Royals for ₹1.1 crore ahead of IPL 2025 and quickly made headlines with his remarkable strokeplay. The left-hander struck a blazing century off just 38 balls against the Gujarat Titans and finished the season with 252 runs from seven matches.
His explosive strike rate of 206.55 earned him the Super Striker of the Season award. In a video released by Sky Sports, Sangakkara said that one of the team analysts had initially recommended keeping an eye on the Bihar-born prodigy. He added more details, saying:
“Vaibhav Suryavanshi has already shown himself to be a special talent. In 2023, one of the Rajasthan Royals analysts sent through a text, saying, there’s a very special player to watch, get to trials and look to sign. The first time I saw him live, we had signed him was after we signed him apart from watching some videos of him batting.”
“It was in the nets in Guwahati. Batting against Jofra Archer and the other seamers we had, he made it look very, very easy. He had a lot of time, the sound off his bat was like a gun shot, every single time he made contact with the ball.”
Sangakkara Backs 14-Year-Old Suryavanshi To Keep Improving With Age And Motivation
Kumar Sangakkara also noted that Vaibhav Suryavanshi consistently displays strong motivation and expressed confidence that he will continue to grow and improve with age.
“His bat swing is lovely. It’s nice and wide outside off-stump and it’s very free-flowing. He has got a lot of time and his movements are very, very simple and minimal. He’s also very enthusiastic about developing his shot repertoire. He has all the shots you can want in a T20 batter. This is just the start for him and he’ll become even better and hopefully, very, very special.”
'The rise of Vaibhav' 🌟 Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara on his first encounter with the rising star 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/uFPATITFTQ
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 20, 2025
Suryavanshi has made history as the youngest cricketer to be picked in the IPL auction and the youngest to register a century in the league.
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