Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to play his first full IPL season this year (IPL/BCCI Photo) Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been breaking records over the past year and as he gears up for his second IPL season, expectations are sky high for the 15-year-old boy wonder. While the jury is still out on whether he can overcome the second-season blues — with teams better prepared to deal with his ferocity with the bat — Sooryavanshi is not one to back down or get stuck. Last season, he showed flashes of being able to hang with the best in the IPL, scoring 252 runs in seven matches, including a century and a fifty, at a strike rate of 206.56. So what can we expect from Sooryavanshi in its second season? A lot – plus these five iconic IPL records, once thought unbreakable, could very well go to a 15-year-old teenager.
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Highest Individual Score – 175 (Chris Gayle)*
The highest individual score in the IPL belongs to the iconic Chris Gayle as he unleashed a literal hailstorm – or ‘Gaylestorm’ if you will – against a hapless Pune Warriors bowling attack with a sensational 175 not out from just 206 runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. It was 13 fours and 17 sixes, a tour de force innings not seen since, and many believe it is one record that will stand the test of time.But with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi breaking all kinds of records left, right and centre, is this Gayle record finally in danger? It very well could be. Sooryavanshi has a penchant for going really, really big when he gets in. A sample of this:His highest score in Youth T20s is 144 off just 42 balls – and he came in the 15th over. His highest score in Youth ODIs is 175 off 80 balls in the 2026 Under-19 World Cup final – and came in the 26th over. His next best 171 came in the Under-19 Asia Cup off just 95 balls, again in the 33rd over. And he smashed 190 off 84 balls in the Vijay Hazare Trophy to get to the 27th over. Need any proof that this breakthrough beast can bring down Chris Gayle’s unrivaled record for the highest individual score in the IPL?
Most sixes in an innings – 17 (Chris Gayle)
Again, the record belongs to Gayle, courtesy of the above innings. Seventeen sixes in a T20 team’s innings is an insane feat in itself, but to bowl it in itself is again unmatched. On the other hand, there are records to be broken and if there is anyone who can eclipse the Great Gayle, it is the wildling Sooryavanshi.Back to highlights: Sooryavanshi hit 15 sixes in 144 runs in the Youth T20 and again 15 in the U-19 World Cup final and another 15 in this innings of 190 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. It should be a fair bet that Sooryavanshi can go three better this IPL.
Most sixes in an edition – 59 (Chris Gayle)
And if we’re betting on Sooryavanshi to break the record for most sixes in an innings, let’s take it one notch further and extend it to most sixes in an IPL season. The record is surprisingly held by Gayle, who hit 59 sixes in the 2012 edition. Andre Russell managed 52 for KKR in 2019. Only two players have managed to hit more than 50 sixes in a single edition, with Gayle doing it twice (51 in the 2013 season).In his inaugural season, Sooryavanshi hit 24 sixes in seven games. So if he gets a full season of 14 games, it would be modest to expect him to hit 50 sixes if he gets going.
Highest Strike Rate in a Season – 234.34 (Jake Fraser-McGurk)
Now this record will be complex to parse and would need some parameter. Considering that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi plays all 14 games or close to them and manages to face at least 10 balls in each game, we set the marker at a minimum of 100 balls per season to determine the best strike rate.With that in mind, Jake Fraser-McGurk’s whirlwind 2024 season tops the list with a strike rate of 234.34 in nine matches facing a total of 141 deliveries. And why do we think Sooryavanshi can outshine it? Last season, Sooryavanshi came close. In seven matches in which he bowled 122 deliveries, he finished with a strike rate of 206.55. So if he has an unexpected season this time around, Sooryavanshi has a real chance to top the rankings, even in terms of strike rate – but the rider here is the considerable number of balls he faces.
Six sixes in progress
And finally, a record we’ve seen in first-class cricket, List A and T20 – apart from the IPL: six sixes in an over. The best in the IPL is five sixes in an over, witnessed five times. Gayle was the first to do so in 2012, hitting Pune Warriors’ Rahul Sharma for five sixes. Rahul Tewatia entered IPL folklore by hitting West Indies international Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in 2020 and Ravindra Jadeja repeated the feat in 2021 against RCB’s Harshal Patel – also with a four – to equal the most runs scored in an over.Rinku Singh then produced the most thrilling finish in IPL history when he hit Yash Dayal for five sixes in the final over to win the match for KKR and in 2025 Riyan Parag smoked five sixes off KKR’s Moeen Ali. Will Sooryavanshi add – not just his name to that list – but complete a set of six sixes in an over – the first ever in the IPL?
