New Delhi: After helping India to lift the U19 World Cup title, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued his purple patch for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL 2026. The 15-year-old batter smashed third fastest IPL fifty, to help RR chase down the 128-run target with 47 balls to spare.

Sooryavanshi was picked by the Rajasthan-based franchise in the IPL 2025 mega auction for Rs 1.10 crore and showed great promise to be India’s next batting superstar. He smashed 252 runs in 7 matches at a strike rate of 206.56 last season, hitting one century and a fifty.

He struck the second-fastest IPL-hundred in 35 balls, and was only behind Chris Gayle’s 30-ball century for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Pune Warriors in 2013. He then represented India at the U19 World Cup and racked up scores of 68, 30, 52, 40 and 72, but felt his timing was off.

He then delivered an unforgettable performance and tore England’s bowling attack apart, hitting an 80-ball 175 in the final. Sooryavanshi ended the tournament as the second-highest run-scorer, with 444 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 162.49. He struck 15 maximums in that final, which are the most by any batter in a youth one-day match, and surpassed his own record of 14 sixes against the UAE in December.

He had made his Ranji Trophy debut at the age of 12 years and 284 days, becoming the youngest Indian first-class cricketer since 1986. Since then, he has been promoted to the vice-captaincy of the Bihar, become a big name in the IPL, and won an Under-19 World Cup.

His next target will be to win an IPL title with RR, and the 15-year-old made his intention clear with an outstanding batting display against the five-time IPL champions CSK, smashing a 15-ball half-century.

After the match against CSK, Sooryavanshi said that the plan was to execute in the powerplay, and the wicket felt a bit sticky at the start, but as the ball got older, it started to come nicely onto the bat.

“I do think about defence, but today our plan was to control the game in the powerplay because in a small chase, that phase is crucial – if the bowling team does well there, the game can tilt their way, but our powerplay went really well. The coaches didn’t specifically say that bowlers would attack me – everyone else was already saying that – but they just told me that they back me and that I should stick to my natural game and play according to the situation,” he said.

After getting off to a sensational start in RR’s opening IPL 2026 match, Sooryavanshi will look to become the youngest player to win the orange cap in the ongoing season. Rajasthan Royals will next face Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on April 4.