Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the youngest IPL centurion, continues to excel in the 2026 season with over 400 runs. Despite predictions of a decline, he has maintained strong performance with a century and two fifties.
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Vaibhav Sooryavanshiâs final appearance in the 2025 IPL season left fans with a moment that stayed in memory. He was seen speaking to Rahul Dravid, who told the youngster: "Next year will be crucial. It will be a real test for you because opposition bowlers would have figured you out."
By then, Sooryavanshi had already become the youngest player to score a century in the IPL. But a year later, bowlers still have not found an easy way to stop him. In IPL 2026 so far, he has already scored one century, two fifties and more than 400 runs, with the tournament still going on.
Even after Dravid left Rajasthan Royals, the franchise continued to work closely on Sooryavanshiâs game. The youngster skipped his Class 10 board exams to attend the Royalsâ training camp. Despite already scoring centuries in England, Australia and South Africa, along with a match-winning 175 in the Under-19 World Cup final, he kept spending extra hours improving different parts of his batting.
Speaking to Wisden, Sooryavanshiâs mentor and former Rajasthan Royals director of cricket Zubin Bharucha explained how the franchise prepared the youngster for a tougher second IPL season.
"Everybody predicted that he would not have a good second season in the IPL. And that was a very big motivating factor in terms of how we can get him ready, given now everybody knows his game, and how to counterattack him. What do we do to get one step ahead? He is intuitive and extremely intelligent. He is incredibly sharp. He would remember every tiny detail of every tiny ball bowled to him. Very specific, very well planned, always ready for what might happen and great with scenarios. Itâs a combination of things you donât get together," Bharucha said, while talking to Wisden.
Bharucha said Rajasthan Royals had started working on Sooryavanshiâs game from the moment they first spotted him. The franchise tracked everything from his bat speed and swing speed to his impact points.
According to Bharucha, Sooryavanshiâs bat swing speed was initially between 90 and 95 kmph. The Royals wanted him to generate more speed and improve his ball-striking ability.
âWe worked on it very diligently. We used heavy bats, outfield drills where he was encouraged to hit every ball for six, and multiple-layered sequencing drills. Within three to four months, we saw his bat speed jump from the 92-95 range to nearly 110-115 kmph. Thatâs massive. In bat speed terms, thatâs one hell of a leap. Those were the kind of improvements we focused on. Then came the second layer, which was his ability to access different balls,â Bharucha said.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi became the youngest player to score a century in the IPL and has continued to perform well in the 2026 season.
Rajasthan Royals provided extensive training and mentorship, including extra practice hours and guidance from former director of cricket Zubin Bharucha.
Sooryavanshi is expected to face tougher competition as opposition bowlers adapt to his playing style, making his performance crucial this season.
He skipped his exams to attend the Rajasthan Royals' training camp, prioritizing his cricket development over academics.

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Bharucha also pointed out that Sooryavanshi earlier relied more on off-side shots, which the franchise tried to balance.
âHe was a little tilted towards the off-side initially, so there were a lot of off-side shots in his game and not many on the leg. We had to work on that. Even now, against fuller balls on middle stump through midwicket and square leg, he is probably not as comfortable as he could be. But we have made him substantially better than where he was.â
He added that Sooryavanshi followed the same training system used for players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag and Sanju Samson.
âFrom a systems perspective, we always monitor the number of balls a player faces every day, every week and every month. Players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag and Sanju Samson have all gone through thousands and thousands of repetitions and faced thousands of balls in training. We simply put him through the same process,â Bharucha added.