Vaibhav Sooryavanshi suffered his first low score in the IPL 2026 on Monday night, a golden duck in Hyderabad. While the first-baller against Sunrisers Hyderabad debutant Praful Hinge would have hurt the 15-year-old sensation, Sooryavanshi is also unhappy with not receiving more game time in the last two matches as RR have deployed him as the Impact Player substitute.
In the previous game in Guwahati, where Rajasthan walloped defending champs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Sooryavanshi came in as the impact sub and smashed a spell-binding 78 off 26 deliveries against a world-class bowling line-up led by Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. After SRH piled on a 216 for six score at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday night, Sooryavanshi walked in for the chase as the Impact Sub, replacing seamer Sandeep Sharma. However, the left-hander fell on the first ball of his innings, mistiming a pull with a top-edge to the wicket-keeper.
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According to RR fielding coach Trevor Penney, Sooryavanshi is unhappy with not being regarded as a key man on the field, with South Africa batter Donnovan Ferreira taking his spot in the main XI. The coach revealed that with Ferreira passing his fitness test from a recent injury, RR could not afford to miss out on an exceptional fielder on the ground.
“The last game he missed out on, he wasn’t very happy because he loves his fielding. It’s not because he’s a poor fielder,” Penny told the broadcasters during the SRH-RR clash.
“Donovan has passed his fitness test. He broke his collarbone in the SA20. He’s a gun fielder. It’s good to have him back on the field. Sadly, Vaibhav misses out,” he added.
In only his second season with the experience of only a handful of professional T20s, Sooryavanshi has had the entire tournament take note of his extraordinary capabilities with his 200 runs in five innings coming at a jaw-dropping 263.15 strike rate, the highest among all batters in the league.
