From MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the face of the IPL has constantly evolved. Only this time, it’s a 15-year-old. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had impressed last year, even scoring a historic century. But that was merely the trailer. In IPL 2026, he has torn apart every world-class bowler that has come his way — Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar — you name it. Sooryavanshi has shown no regard for the stature of those bowlers. The treatment has been the same for all.
But he must have some weakness, doesn’t he?
ESPNcricinfo expert Ian Bishop searched for the answer but failed to pinpoint any one particular aspect. He eventually broke his game into two parts. From a psychological standpoint, he said Sooryavanshi is “tough”, which allows him to take on the best bowlers in the world, whether it’s Jofra Archer in the nets or Bumrah in a match. What makes him technically effective as a T20 batter is his baseball-style bat swing.
“I think psychologically, or from a character standpoint, he is very tough because he’s taking on many of the world’s best bowlers. We see social media posts of Jofra Archer running into him in practice sessions, hitting the pull shot and the lofted shot. So his psychological makeup is efficient to take on the best bowlers in the world. He also took on Jasprit Bumrah. Technically, he’s kind of unique with this bat swing, more like a baseball sort of swing,” he told Hindustan Times during a media interaction on Thursday ahead of IPL 2026’s Revenge Week, starting May 2.
But Bishop is meticulous when it comes to cricket. Seldom do things go unnoticed by the West Indies legend. He has closely watched Sooryavanshi throughout the last IPL season and tracked his performances in junior-level cricket, including the U-19 World Cup earlier this year, during which he noticed a pattern.
The back-of-a-length delivery is one that troubles Sooryavanshi, he claimed, and it was precisely what Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer Praful Hinge used earlier this month to dismiss the Rajasthan Royals opener for a duck. However, Bishop was careful to add that the bowler must execute that delivery to perfection to get him out — or risk being hit for six.
“I think it’s very hard to see exactly what his weakness is because the back-of-a-length delivery has worked against him, for example, in Under-19 World Cups on three or four occasions against Sunrisers Hyderabad. But then, if you don’t get that back-of-a-length delivery where he pulls and top-edges early, those same deliveries are disappearing out of the park. So I think technically he’s set up very well,” he added.
Bishop also pointed out that top bowlers in the IPL this season have tried several plans against Sooryavanshi. More recently, Arshdeep Singh attempted yorkers to keep him quiet, and after being hit for boundaries, switched to going around the wicket with fuller deliveries angled across. But Bishop concluded that he is yet to identify any one clear flaw in his batting.
“He has a number of world-class bowlers in this tournament going through, as I said on commentary yesterday, Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan E, F, and G, and that’s a good sign. That he has all these excellent bowlers, usually veterans of the game, having to go through a whole host of plans. As Arshdeep tried to go yorker, yorker, yorker at him in the previous game. So I think he’s set up well, and I don’t know that there’s any one plan yet that I can put my finger on and say, ‘This is definitely what you do against him.'”
Sooryavanshi currently sits third in the Orange Cap standings this season, having scored 400 runs in nine matches at a phenomenal strike rate of 238.09, including a record century and two fifties.
He will next be seen in action on May 1, when the Rajasthan Royals take on the Delhi Capitals in Jaipur.