Indian teenager Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continues to earn praise after his sensational IPL 2026 campaign for the Rajasthan Royals. The 15-year-old batter finished as the tournament’s highest run-scorer and won several awards during a memorable season.
Sooryavanshi impressed fans and experts with his fearless batting. He attacked some of the best bowlers in the world and played a major role in Rajasthan Royals’ success.
The latest cricket legend to praise him is former Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath. The World Cup winner was highly impressed with the youngster and compared him to two West Indies greats, Brian Lara and Sir Gary Sobers.
McGrath Full of Praise for Young Indian Star
Speaking about Sooryavanshi’s batting style, McGrath said:
“You probably look at someone like Brian Lara with that backlift. You look back, and Gary Sobers is another one who comes to mind. He was incredible. Normally, players have more force than sixes, but he had 72 sixes and 63 fours. He’s obviously a powerful hitter and has definitely changed the game. They have no fear, do they? They don’t care whether it’s Pat Cummers bowling. If it’s there, he just hits through it.”
McGrath also spoke about the importance of Test cricket and wondered whether Sooryavanshi aims to play the longest format for India.
“I like to think players will look after Test cricket and it’s still the ultimate. But there’s some players that probably don’t want to play a longer version of the game. You look at Tim David for Australia, came through, played IPL before he played for Australia. Maybe that’s just the modern game. You’d have to ask him (Vaibhav) whether he has aspirations of going on to play red ball cricket, Test cricket for India.”
After scoring 776 runs in IPL 2026, Sooryavanshi earned his first India T20I call-up. However, he managed only 14 runs in his first India A match against Sri Lanka A, ending a highly anticipated return to action on a disappointing note.
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