It was inevitable anyway — Vaibhav Sooryavanshi winning the Orange Cap.
Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan needed 55 and 67 runs respectively in the final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Ahmedabad on Sunday night, but both were removed cheaply inside the first four overs, which meant Sooryavanshi became the undisputed batting king of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL).
After his 47-ball 96 in the second qualifier on Friday, the 15-year-old boy wonder took his run tally to 776 runs in 16 games at an average of 48.50 and a strike rate of 237.31. Thereafter, all eyes were on Gill and Sudharsan in terms of the Orange Cap competition, but they disappointed their fans.
It’s a huge, huge achievement for Sooryavanshi. It was just his second season in the IPL, and he became the youngest in the history of the league to win the distinguished honour. All through the season, he was phenomenal and reached several milestones.
He hit 72 sixes in the season, the highest by any in IPL history. The previous best was 59 by Chris Gayle for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2012. Then Sooryavanshi also became the fastest to 1000 IPL runs — in terms of balls faced — during his knock against Gujarat Titans in the second qualifier. He took just 440 balls. In terms of innings, he was joint second with former Mumbai Indians star Lendl Simmons, who also took 23 innings to reach 1000 runs.
Even Sachin Tendulkar was impressed!
Just the kind of season, Sooryavanshi and his family would have wanted. From Sachin Tendulkar to Sunil Gavaskar to Ravi Shastri to Ian Bishop, there hasn’t been anyone upon whom Sooryavanshi didn’t leave a favourable impression. India are travelling to Ireland next month for 2 T20Is and then to England for five T20Is, and one can’t find any reason not to include him in the touring squads.
Sooryavanshi’s success is no fluke. He is extremely hardworking. Recently, he revealed his IPL routine. He goes back to the hotel room after the matches and tries to sleep as much as he can to recover fully. He just watches videos on YouTube and makes sure he doesn’t watch bowling videos, so that he doesn’t get anxious about certain bowlers. He is a simple young man who is not into anything that may get in the way of his cricketing aspirations.
From the start of the season to midway through, there were still doubts over his India credentials, but in the last couple of weeks, they were removed after Sooryavanshi piled on the runs in some really important matches. A star has truly arrived.
