Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s IPL 2026 is the greatest batting season ever, nothing compares to it

For nearly two months, every team that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi played against had the same feeling as their bowlers looked worried before delivering the first ball and their captains kept changing field placements in the hope of stopping the carnage. That is what Sooryavanshi did again, and that too, in the must-win IPL 2026 Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday.

At just 15 years old, the Rajasthan Royals opener has produced what is arguably the greatest batting season in IPL history. The only campaign that can seriously compete with it is Virat Kohli’s legendary 973-run season in 2016. But there is one major difference. Kohli was already an established international superstar at that point. Sooryavanshi is still waiting for his senior India debut.

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There have been other great IPL batting seasons as well, including those from the likes of Jos Buttler (863 runs), Shubman Gill (890 runs), Chris Gayle (733) and Sai Sudharsan (759 runs), but none of them come close to Sooryavanshi’s IPL 2026 season. Of course, there are many reasons to support that argument, including the pace at which he scored his runs this year, but the first and biggest factor is his age.

Why Sooryavanshi's IPL 2026 season feels historic

That is what makes Sooryavanshi's IPL 2026 season feel almost unreal. In 15 matches, the Bihar prodigy has scored 660 runs at an average of 47.14 and a strike rate of 240. He smashed 63 sixes and 53 fours, while scoring one century and four fifties. No batter in IPL history had ever crossed 600 runs while maintaining a strike rate above 240, and that too, at such a young age.

The teenager completely dominated powerplays throughout the tournament. He scored 490 runs in the first six overs alone, breaking former SRH skipper David Warner’s long-standing IPL record of 467 set in 2016. Most teams spend the powerplay trying to survive, but Sooryavanshi treats it like a batting practice session. It often looks like he is playing a video game, and the top international bowlers bowling to him are just characters.

His performances reached another level when he smashed three 15-ball fifties earlier in the season. Sooryavanshi topped it up with a crucial 16-ball half-century in the must-win Eliminator against SRH, equalling the fastest fifty in IPL knockout history alongside Suresh Raina. He also hit 11 sixes in the innings, the most ever in an IPL playoff match.

Sooryavanshi's IPL 2026 season has been record-laden. Image: Reuters

During his latest innings, he also broke Gayle’s all-time record for most sixes in a single IPL season. Gayle had hit 59 sixes in 2012 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru and took 456 balls to get there. Sooryavanshi crossed the mark in only 263 deliveries before eventually taking his tally to 61 sixes in tonight's game. This alone explains the madness of his season.

Gayle was considered the most destructive batter T20 cricket had ever seen. Yet this teenager broke his record while playing nearly 200 fewer balls. Sooryavanshi has already admitted that he wants to break Gayle’s long-standing records for the fastest IPL century (33 balls) and the highest individual score (175), both of which the former West Indies batter achieved in 2013. The RR batter came close to breaking the fastest-ton record when he was dismissed for 97 off just 29 balls tonight.

The records kept coming throughout the season. Sooryavanshi also became only the second player after Gayle to hit 10 or more sixes in an IPL innings four different times. And the most frightening part for bowlers was that he was not looking at the individual reputation of players before taking them to cleaners.

Not a one-season wonder!

This was not a one-season wonder story that started suddenly this year. The signs had already appeared a year earlier. At 13 years old, Sooryavanshi became the youngest player ever to earn an IPL contract when RR bought him for INR 1.1 crore ahead of IPL 2025. At 14, he became the youngest centurion in IPL history and the fastest-ever Indian to reach the three-digit mark in IPL.

And now, he is continuing from where he left off last year. This is also a reason why his batting season this year feels historic. The IPL has seen incredible seasons from legends like Kohli, Gayle, Warner and Buttler, but none of them dominated the league the way this 15-year-old is doing, and that too with consistency and a far superior strike rate than all of them.