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Kumar Sangakkara has revealed his first Rajasthan Royals impressions of Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi continues his stunning rise. (BCCI Photo)
Rajasthan Royals director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara has revealed the fascinating tale of the first time he got to know about Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The Sri Lankan legend said that RR were asked to try Suryavanshi as early as 2023 (when he was 11 and two years before he eventually signed for them), while the first time he saw the Bihar teenager bat was in the RR camp, smashing the likes of Jofra Archer, with a bat sound similar to gunshots.
Suryavanshi became the youngest to ever feature in IPL after replacing the injured Sanju Samson in the 11th mid-IPL 2025 season. He went on to score 252 runs in seven innings at a strike-rate of over 200. His exploits included a record-breaking 35-ball century against the Gujarat Titans.
“Suryavanshi has already shown himself to be a very special talent,” Sangakkara told Sky Sports. “In 2023, one of the Rajasthan Royals analysts sent through a text saying there’s a very special player we need to watch, get to trials, and look to sign. And the first time I saw him live was after we had signed him, apart from watching some videos of him batting in the nets in Guwahati, batting against Jofra Archer and other seamers that we had. And he made it look very, very easy.”
“He had a lot of time, the sound of his bat was like a gunshot every single time he contacted the ball. His bat swing is lovely. It’s nice and wide outside the stump, and it’s very free-flowing. He’s got a lot of time. His movements are very, very simple and minimal, and he’s very enthusiastic about developing his shot repertoire and all the shots that you can want in a T20 batter. This is just a start for him to become even better and hopefully very, very special,” he added.
Suryavanshi has since become a mainstay for the India Under-19 teams, which are currently in England, and is likely to be the same for RR.
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