Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath has showered praise on Vaibhav Suryavanshi for his ability to play with power despite being only 14 years old. Badrinath also compared the youngster with former all-rounder Yuvraj Singh for his impressive ball-hitting abilities.
Facing the first ball of his IPL career, the 14-year-old boy smashed seasoned campaigner Shardul Thakur for a six, to make a bold statement.
Suryavanshi then smashed a 35-ball IPL century against Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025 and there has been no stopping him since then. Suryavanshi was at his absolute best in the Under-19 World Cup final against England as he smashed a magnum opus knock of 175 runs off just 80 balls and was awarded Player of the Match.
The prodigy left-hander clobbered 15 fours and as many sixes in his blistering knock as he scored his runs at a strike rate of 218.75. Ergo, he played an instrumental role in helping India post a gargantuan total of 411 runs on the board.
The southpaw scored 439 runs in seven matches of the tournament at an average of 62.71 and a strike rate of 169.50 and thus was awarded Player of the Tournament.
Badrinath said on his YouTube Channel, “He is coming into this IPL in superb form. When I watch Vaibhav Suryavanshi, it reminds me of a young Yuvraj Singh. Talent aside, to generate this amount of power at this age is what sets him apart. I’ve never seen a 16 or 17-year-old boy have so much power. I remember Yuvraj used to hit sixes out of the group at the Under-19 level itself. Six-hitting is a talent, but to smash it out of the ground is power. Vaibhav is similar.”
The former CSK batter said the youngster will be the cynosure of all eyes in IPL 2026.
“This is an important season for him (Suryavanshi) as well. He did brilliantly in his debut season, but this season, everyone would have had an eye on him and come up with plans to combat him,” said Badrinath (via the aforementioned source).
Meanwhile, Suryavanshi scored 252 runs in seven matches of IPL 2025 for Rajasthan Royals at an average of 36 and a strike rate of 206.55 and thus hogged all the limelight.
Rajasthan Royals will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against Chennai Super Kings on 30th March at Guwahati.
