Pat Cummins may be one of the greatest fast bowlers of his generation but even he had to bear the brunt of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s fury in the 2026 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Australia captain finished the IPL Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals with dismal figures of 0/64, with 25 of the runs he conceded coming in one over in which Sooryavanshi smashed a four and then three sixes in row. Sooryavanshi nearly broke Chris Gayle’s record for the fastest-ever IPL century in that innings.
Cummins said that the 15-year-old has shown this year that he wasn’t a one-off last season. “I’d say [the mood in India] is still a little bit of disbelief. I think he’s got enough credits now that he’s not just a flash in the pan. He’s a real talent,” Cummins said on the Sydney Morning Herald. “He’s just a really good hitter of the ball. He’s clearing [the boundary] by 20 or 30 metres, so your margins for error become really small when someone is that strong and has got so many options. He’s really impressive.”
At 15 years of age, Sooryavanshi became the youngest to win the Orange Cap by some margin this year. He scored 776 runs in 16 innings at a scarcely believable strike rate of 237.30 and average of 48.50 with one century and five half-centuries.
Over the course of the innings against SRH, Sooryavanshi broke Gayle’s record for most sixes in a single season of the IPL. The West Indies great had set it just a year after Sooryavanshi was born. He eventually fell on 97 off 29 balls at a ridiculous strike rate of 334.48.
In RR’s next match against Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2, Sooryavanshi was more measured in his approach with his side losing wickets at the other end, thus showing a different facet to his game. Even then, he eventually accelarated and was dismissed on 96 off 47 balls.
