Teen batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has become one of the biggest talking points of IPL 2026, with his fearless strokeplay and explosive scoring forcing everyone to sit up and take notice. The 15-year-old has already piled up 440 runs in 11 innings at an average of 40.00 and a staggering strike rate of 236.55, with two centuries and two half-centuries to his name. His ability to take on high-quality pace attacks, including Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, has sparked early conversations about whether he could one day be fast-tracked into India’s T20I setup.
Even so, former South Africa great AB de Villiers has urged patience and perspective when it comes to the teenager’s long-term development. Speaking on the For The Love of Cricket podcast hosted by England pace legend Stuart Broad, de Villiers praised Sooryavanshi’s enormous talent but warned that the youngster still has much more to learn across formats.
“I do not know how he is going to last, to be honest. At his age, the talent is incredible. But I would like to see him in other formats,” AB de Villiers said.
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The former RCB star explained that Test cricket, in particular, can reveal completely different dimensions of a player’s temperament, technique and physical endurance. He believes Sooryavanshi would benefit from the challenge of red-ball and ODI cricket before being locked into a T20-only identity.
“If he does start nibbling around with ODIs and, in particular, Test cricket, he will discover a whole different area of his cricket mentally and physically,” AB de Villiers added. “He definitely has the talent to overcome all the obstacles that may come his way, but it will not be an easy ride.”
Sooryavanshi’s rise is not limited to the IPL. At the U-19 World Cup earlier this year, he finished as the tournament’s second-highest run-scorer with 439 runs in seven matches at an average of 62.71 and a strike rate of 169.49.
That campaign included a century, three fifties and a stunning best of 175, along with a record 30 sixes that took him past Dewald Brevis’ previous mark for the most sixes in a single U-19 World Cup. His numbers across youth and domestic cricket underline just how special he already looks.
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Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is India’s leading run-scorer in U-19 ODIs with 1,412 runs in 25 innings at an average of 56.48, while he has also struck 1,105 runs in 28 T20s at a remarkable strike rate of 215.39. In List-A cricket, he has added 353 runs in eight innings, including a highest score of 190, strengthening the view that his ceiling could be exceptionally high if managed carefully.
