Rajasthan Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara has showered extensive praise on his team’s young opener, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and has elaborated on how he goes about with his preparation and training.
The 15-year-old Sooryavanshi had a brilliant rookie season in IPL 2025, bursting onto the scene in blistering fashion, and has followed that up with an even more impressive sophomore year in 2026. He has scored 486 runs at a blistering strike rate of 234.78. He has scored two half-centuries and a century, following up on his brilliant hundred from 2025. Sangakkara spoke of how he deals with Sooryavanshi, and that he does not need to play a fatherly role towards the player, while also lauding the young opener.
“He’s very curious, but I’m very careful not to have too long a chat with him. He just needs to relax and bat. If we do chat, it’s a lot about other things other than cricket. No, no. He doesn’t need that at all. He’s a much better player than I would ever be, so he needs a little help but not too much,” Sangakkara said, as quoted by NDTV sports.
The Royals’ coach revealed the discussions that he has with the young opener when it comes to batting. Sangakkara stated that he has an idea of what the bowlers will bowl to him and trains accordingly. He added that the only messaging he gives is to commit fully to whatever plan the young prodigy has in mind.
“When he practices, we kind of have a chat with him about what the bowlers might do, and he has an idea of what they might do to him – the short ball, the swinging yorker. So we’ll practice those a little bit, but the more we tell him is just to commit. Whatever you do and you decide to do, you have to be 100% committed to that option.
“The most exciting thing is just how he looks at batting. He looks at it like all of us should as a 15-year-old, as a kid would. He loves it, he bats for long hours, and that’s the most exciting thing. He really reads the game as well, so it’s not just mindless hitting with him,” he added.
Despite Sooryavanshi’s stellar season, the Royals find themselves once more fighting to make the playoffs. With two games left, they need two wins to stake a claim in the final four of the season. They host the Lucknow Super Giants in Jaipur on May 19 in their next game.
