Rajasthan Royals batsman Vaibhav Sooryavanshi during the IPL match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Guwahati. (Image: ANI) NEW DELHI: Aditya Thakur, 20, is an aspiring cricketer. He is currently traveling between cities to improve his batting to make it to the Bihar U-23 team for the 2026-27 domestic season. But whenever Rajasthan Royals play, he makes sure to watch the game as his younger brother Vaibhav Sooryavanshi plays for the franchise.Aditya hails from Ramapur Maheshpur, a village next to Sooryavanshi village, Tajpur, in Samastipur. He has been Sooryavanshi’s side arm bowler for the last five years. He is not surprised by how the teenager bats: with clarity and purpose from ball one.
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Yashasvi Jaiswal reveals the mood in the RR dressing room after their third straight win “I am not surprised at all,” Aditya, who is currently training in Jaipur, told TimesofIndia.com.After taking on Mumbai Indians’ Jasprit Bumrah a few days ago, Sooryavanshi tore apart Royal Challengers Bengaluru seamers Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar on Friday night. He doesn’t bother with reputation or biographies.“Every time he picks up the bat, it’s like Diwali. I’m not surprised by the shots he’s playing. I’ve worked with him for the last five years and this is just the beginning,” he said.When asked if it’s like Diwali in Tajpur every time he goes to bat, Thakur replied, “Pathaake footte hi rehte hain (It feels like firecrackers are going off all the time).”Sooryavanshi smashed Bumrah for two sixes in his last match and went after Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar on Friday night in Guwahati. He bounced a boundary off Bhuvneshwar’s swinging yorker.
Rajasthan Royals batsman Vaibhav Sooryavanshi against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2026. (Image: ANI)
“His buoyancy is just incredible. When you lift the bat, it usually doesn’t go past your right shoulder. His bat not only goes past his right shoulder, it goes past his head, which is absolutely rare. In fact, if you bowl him a straight yorker at 150, technically he should miss because to get the bat off the front of the head and then go all the way back and come down again is obviously very difficult, Vabin Zubihav’ mentor, he explained in a chat with this site last year.Saving his best for Hazlewood, he waved him deftly towards the other man. He bowled the next ball over mid-on to complete the hat-trick of boundaries with an excellent cover pull. But the icing on the cake was a maximum pull over deep square leg. He plundered 19 runs from Hazlewood’s over and then, with back-to-back sixes against Bhuvneshwar, completed his fifty in just 15 balls.
Every time he picks up the bat, it’s like Diwali. The shots he plays don’t surprise me
Aditya Thakur
“I don’t think we could have done much. The way he’s batting, it doesn’t hurt. He’s playing good shots. He’s too mature for a 15-year-old boy. I think we should give him credit for the way he’s batting. He’s batting really well and he deserves all the credit,” Bhuvneshwar told reporters after the match.Aditya shared an interesting story about how Sooryavanshi practices at home on a concrete pitch.“He trains for three hours every day in the morning and three hours in the evening. Last year, before the IPL, he got hit on the helmet and fell down. His father (Sanjeev Sooryavanshi), who was watching from behind the nets, was in no hurry. I was scared and ran to him. He got up on his own and didn’t flinch. We took him to RI’Sir for security reasons and he asked M, kal. cricket khel sakte hain?” (Can I play cricket from tomorrow?). He is a special boy,” said Aditya. At 15, while most are still learning the game, Sooryavanshi is already dictating terms to some of the best in the business. Fearless moves, clarity of thought. If this is just the beginning, Indian cricket may witness the rise of a once-in-a-generation talent.
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