Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: Is the IPL Wonderkid, 15, the best T20 opener in the world and should India pick him for the England series? | Cricket news

The youth are hitting it in sports right now.

Luke Littler (19) holds the darts. Joao Fonseca (19) recently knocked out tennis star Novak Djokovic in the French Open.

Kimi Antonelli (19) leads the F1 world championship. Max Dowman (16) played his part in Arsenal’s Premier League win.

And in the IPL, a 15-year-old runs riot.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is literally smashing. In 16 innings, he has hit a record 72 sixes. That’s an average of 4.5 per game.

Sooryavanshi’s sixes – the previous record in an IPL single was 59 by Chris Gayle in 2012 – helped him reach 776 runs in the campaign from just 327 deliveries.

The Rajasthan Royals batsman’s strike rate (the average number of runs scored by a batsman per 100 balls faced) was a staggering 237.30.

The IPL has never seen anything like this from a player who scored this amount of runs. Jake Fraser-McGurk’s batting average in 2024 was 234.04 but his last runs were 330, off 141 balls.

One of the many surprised by this lady is England captain Michael Vaughan.

Vaughan tweeted on the day Sooryavanshi was caught trying for a boundary of 97 that would have seen him hit an IPL record 29-ball feat – Gayle’s 30-ball effort is safe for now – that the left-hander was “the best T20 opener in the world”.

So, are you right?

Who are Sooryavanshi’s rivals for the world’s best T20 opener?

Something like this will be the case. It’s a big debate for a sunny day in the beer garden or, in this case, for many Indian girls, but it’s hard to say for sure.

What matters to Sooryavanshi is that he has yet to play international cricket – that day will come, maybe soon – and that others have been doing it for a long time.

The list of others includes countrymen Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan – the former the No. 1 player in T20Is, the latter sitting at No. 2. Another Indian, Sanju Samson, had a good run at the end of the T20 World Cup and scored two tons in the IPL this season.

Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan, who is third in the T20I rankings, was the leading run-scorer in the T20 World Cup this spring. Australia’s Mitchell Marsh is a shot in this format.

England’s Phil Salt has four T20I hundreds, the highlight being his 60-ball 141 not out against South Africa last September. His teammate Jos Buttler would have been in the conversation a few years ago during his prime but maybe not now.

But when Sooryavanshi surpassed his opponents he was brutal.

When it comes to four points in IPL 2026, his tally of 63 is the fourth highest. When it comes to sixes, he is in a league of his own, amassing 29 more than Abhishek.

So what we can say without doubt is that Sooryavanshi is the best T20 opener in the world right now. His IPL has been a surprise.

A 36-ball hundred against Sunrisers Hyderabad, that 29-ball 97 against the same team, 38-ball 93 against Lucknow Super Giants, 47-ball 96 against Gujarat Titans.

He bundled out Royal Challengers Bengaluru with 78 off 26 balls. He creamed Chennai Super Kings for 52 off 17 deliveries. His 521 runs in the powerplay this season (first six overs of the innings) is the record for all IPL programmes.

And as remarkable as all of this is, we can’t say it’s completely shocking.

Remember, this is the player who scored a 35-ball century as a 14-year-old for Rajasthan against Gujarat in last year’s IPL. Between that and the 2026 edition, he dominated youth cricket, scoring 175 off 80 balls against England in the U19 World Cup final.

Will India call Sooryavanshi next?

We now wait to see if he will be given a chance to bat against England’s senior bowlers when India come to these grounds later in the summer for five T20 internationals and three one-day internationals.

With Abhishek, Kishan and the aforementioned Samson, Sooryavanshi have a huge competition to catch the team that won the last two T20 World Cups.

What’s more, with all the pressure and scrutiny international cricket can throw at you, India might decide that at 15 – a young 15, he doesn’t turn 16 until March 2027 – that it might be too soon for Sooryavanshi.

But he is doing hell and Vaughan feels that India should pick him to face England.

Rajasthan coach Kumar Sangakkara said: “With all that Vaibhav has shown against the best bowlers in the world, he is ready to face any challenge you throw at him.

“I’m sure he’ll be called up soon. He’s got a lot of maturity. He’s carried the burden of that opening team well for us this season.”

Mature, confident and hurtful – Sooryavanshi’s key traits

Sooryavanshi showed that growth against Gujarat on Friday as he watched top-class wickets fall around him.

He hit his first six on the 14th legal ball he faced and reached his fifty from 31. He’s not slow, but slow by his breath-taking standards. He stepped back and hit the helmet. Then he accelerated, scoring 46 runs from his next 16 balls before cutting to deep third.

It was the second innings in a row in which he has sought to reach three figures in style and the third of four he has fallen in the 90s playing attacking football but, in some ways, that perhaps reflects his readiness for international cricket. He doesn’t take steps back.

And he lacks confidence, telling Kevin Pietersen recently that he thinks he can score 200 in a T20 match.

“You don’t feel like you have too many options,” observed Pat Cummins, after Sooryavanshi hit three consecutive sixes during his 29-ball 97 against Sunrisers in the IPL play-offs. “He misses your yorker a bit and he doesn’t like to miss them.”

India may now have no option but to pick him. There is no choice but to choose a 15 year old. Let that sink in.

We don’t understand his mind too much. He comes to all our team meetings, he contributes, he listens, he does a lot of homework. He practices well and studies the bowlers well, watches their videos and prepares himself. We don’t want to put unnecessary thoughts in his head. I think a clear idea, boldness is exactly what we want to see from him.

Watch England’s white-ball India tour, from 1-19 July, live on Sky Sports. Don’t have Sky? Stream cricket and more NOW.

India tour of England 2026

At all times in the UK and Ireland; they are all live on Sky Sports

• First T20I (Wednesday July 1) – Chester-le-Street, Durham (5.30pm)
• 2nd T20I (Saturday July 4) – Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester (2.30pm)
• Third T20I (Tuesday July 7) – Trent Bridge, Nottingham (5.30pm)
• Fourth T20I (Thursday July 9) – Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol (5.30pm)
• Fifth T20I (Saturday July 11) – Utilita Bowl, Southampton (2.30pm)
• First ODI (Tuesday July 14) – Edgbaston, Birmingham (11am)
• 2nd ODI (Thursday July 16) – Sophia Gardens, Cardiff (1pm)
• Third ODI (Sunday July 19) – Lord’s, London (11am)