Suryakumar Yadav has spent much of his T20 career making the improbable look routine, manipulating fields with audacious strokes and turning deliveries well outside conventional scoring zones into boundaries. Yet when the former India T20I captain was asked to identify one skill from another cricketer that he would like to possess, his answer was not attached to one of the game’s established superstars.
Instead, Suryakumar turned towards India’s 15-year-old batting phenomenon Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, whose extraordinary ability to clear the boundary has already made him one of the most discussed young cricketers in the game. “There is a young boy, you must have heard his name – Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Definitely his six-hitting ability,” Suryakumar said during an appearance on the Humans of Bombay YouTube channel.
It was a striking compliment coming from a batter who has himself been among the defining figures of the modern T20 game. Suryakumar has accumulated more than 9,000 runs in the format and built his reputation upon an unusually expansive range of strokes, but Sooryavanshi’s raw power has evidently caught even his attention.
The teenager’s ascent has been breathtaking. After announcing himself during his maiden IPL campaign in 2025, Sooryavanshi played an important role in India’s U19 World Cup triumph earlier this year before producing a staggering IPL 2026 season.
He finished the tournament with 776 runs and the Orange Cap, while his 72 sixes established a new benchmark for the most maximums struck by a player in a single IPL edition. The sheer frequency with which Sooryavanshi has cleared the ropes has become one of the defining features of his batting, making Suryakumar’s choice particularly telling.
Sooryavanshi subsequently made his senior international debut and remains firmly within India’s T20 plans, even though competition for places has meant that his progress at the highest level has not been entirely linear. At 15, however, he has already reached the unusual position where one of India’s most accomplished T20 batters is openly coveting a weapon from his game.
Suryakumar names Bumrah as toughest bowler
Suryakumar was equally unequivocal when asked to name the toughest bowler he has faced, picking his long-time Mumbai Indians and India teammate Jasprit Bumrah. “He is in my team only, Bumrah,” Suryakumar said.
The pair have spent years together at Mumbai Indians and have also shared the India dressing room, although their familiarity has inevitably meant repeated encounters in training. They were opponents earlier in Suryakumar’s IPL career when he represented Kolkata Knight Riders, giving the batter experience of Bumrah from both sides of the contest.
Suryakumar was less willing to separate two of the most influential figures in his cricketing journey when presented with a choice between Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma. “I started playing cricket because of Sachin sir. I was small, I used to watch him on TV, but I have played a lot of cricket with Rohit, under Rohit, so 50-50,” he said.
The answer reflected two different strands of Suryakumar’s career. Tendulkar supplied the inspiration during his formative years, while Rohit became an important contemporary presence as captain and teammate during Suryakumar’s rise with Mumbai Indians and India. For now, Suryakumar finds himself attempting to force his way back into India’s T20I set-up after losing the captaincy and his place in the side despite leading the team to the T20 World Cup title earlier this year. His admiration for Sooryavanshi also captures how rapidly the landscape around him has changed: one of the architects of India’s modern T20 batting revolution is now looking at a 15-year-old and finding a skill worth stealing.
