Rajasthan Royals (RR) teenager Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is already setting his sights on achieving big things in Indian cricket. Vaibhav, 15, was named in the India T20I squad to take on Ireland and England.
He was also named in the India squad for the 2026 Asian Games that will take place in Japan later this year.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi said that he hopes to leave a lasting legacy, so much so that people would keep talking about his impact on the game.
“Main jab cricket khelun, agle 20 saal tak, jitne din bhi khelun, jab tak Bhagwan mujhe mauka de, country ke liye, kisi franchise ke liye, kisi bhi team ke liye, is tareeke se khelun ki jab log matches dekhein toh bolein ki ek player hai jo jab bhi khelta hai toh woh akele hi match khatam karega.”
(“Whenever I play cricket for the next 20 years, however long I play, whenever the almighty gives me a chance for the country, any team or any franchise, I hope to play in a way that people talk about my impact. They say that there is a player who, whenever he clicks, takes the game away single-handedly),” Vaibhav said on Rajasthan Royals’ social media channels.
The Bihar youngster was in impressive form in IPL 2026 as he went onto win the Orange Cap with 776 runs from 16 matches at a strike-rate of 237.30. During the recently-concluded IPL season, Vaibhav also went close to breaking Chris Gayle’s record for the quickest IPL century ever.
Even though he was unable to break Chris Gayle‘s fastest IPL century record, Vaibhav surpassed the Universe Boss for maximum sixes in an IPL season—Vaibhav slammed 72 sixes in IPL 2026, surpassing Chris Gayle’s feat of 59 sixes in IPL 2012 by quite some margin.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi looking to dominate for next two decades
Vaibhav is in fact not looking to just play for India for the next decade or two, but he is looking to dominate the game.
“Woh dominance dikhna chahiye kyunki usi cheez ke liye main mehnat kar raha hoon. Sirf aisa nahi ki bas khel khela aur khel khatam. Aisa khelna hai ki sirf khelna nahi hai, 10 saal, 20 saal tak dominate karna hai aur achha cricket khelna hai.” (The dominance must show that is what I am working hard for. I won’t play for the sake of it. I want to play maybe for the next 10 or 20 years and dominate the game for that period),” he said.
Vaibhav hopes to enjoy playing cricket for the rest of his life. “Enjoy karne ke liye maine cricket start kiya. Main lifetime enjoy karun aur achhe se khelun.” (“I started playing because I wanted to enjoy. So, I want to enjoy the game for my lifetime and play well),” he added.
The two T20Is against Ireland will be played in Belfast on 26 and 28 June. The five-match T20I series against England will then begin from 1 July. The BCCI also announced Shreyas Iyer as India’s newest T20I skipper, succeeding Suryakumar Yadav.