Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s blistering IPL season has not only rewritten record books, it has also raised the heat on Yashasvi Jaiswal. Anil Kumble said the 15-year-old’s run of form has put some pressure on his opening partner, with the contrast between the two Rajasthan Royals batters growing sharper by the day.
Sooryavanshi has hit 65 sixes in the ongoing IPL, passing the previous all-time mark of 59 set by Chris Gayle in 2012, and he has done it while leading the tournament’s run charts and holding the Orange Cap. He has scored 680 runs in 15 innings for Rajasthan Royals, a return that Kumble said was not built on one hot spell or a small sample. “Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is the Orange Cap holder, and that doesn't come from doing it just once or against a couple of teams,” Kumble said. “He's done it consistently over the last two months, and that says a lot about the youngster.”
The weight of that form sits squarely beside Jaiswal’s numbers. He has made 426 runs in 15 matches at an average of 32.77 and a strike rate of 153.24, respectable figures in most seasons but quieter by his own standards. Kumble said the bowlers have bowled well at Jaiswal, yet the pressure remains because Sooryavanshi keeps setting the pace at the top. “It's not just about going out there and bashing a few sixes, even though he is the highest six-hitter now,” Kumble said. “The bowlers have bowled well at him, but he will still be under pressure.”
That pressure was visible against Sunrisers Hyderabad, where Rajasthan Royals scored almost 120 runs in about eight overs and Sooryavanshi did most of the damage. Kumble called the stand “fantastic” and said Jaiswal “will be disappointed that on such a good wicket, he scored at a run-a-ball,” a remark that captures how quickly the internal benchmark has shifted when a teenager is outpacing an established opener in the same line-up.
Sooryavanshi’s rise has been relentless. He recently broke the world record for the most runs in a single T20 series by a teenager, adding another layer to a season that has already made him the standout run-scorer in the league. Kumble said the attention once centered on Jaiswal now belongs to the younger batter. “The whole limelight that was on Yashasvi Jaiswal a couple of years ago is still there, but now someone who is just 15 years old has gone ahead and taken the world by storm,” he said.
The next question is not whether Sooryavanshi has arrived. He has. It is whether Jaiswal can keep pace beside him, because for Rajasthan Royals the opening partnership is no longer just producing runs — it is producing comparisons, and those comparisons are becoming harder to ignore.
