Vaibhav Sooryavanshi emerged as one of the brightest young stars of IPL 2026 as he scored an impressive 440 runs in just 11 innings at the age of 15. While his fearless batting has attracted attention throughout the tournament, former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes there are growing concerns about how the franchise is being used.Sooryavanshi has largely been used as an Impact Player, coming primarily as a batsman and rarely taking part in the field. Manjrekar believes this could hamper the youngster’s overall development as a cricketer, stressing that fielding is an equally important part of the game.“I feel more and more that the Impact Player rule should be revisited for this reason as well. Is that all we want to see from Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, just one side of his game? A cricketer is someone who bats well and also plays well,” Manjrekar said on the Sportstar Insight Edge Podcast.
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Why Suryakumar Yadav Will Lose India T20I Captaincy: Everything You Need To KnowHe explained that earlier generations of players were judged on all aspects of their game, not just batting ability. “We respected players like Inzamam-ul-Haq for their batting, but we also saw their fielding and other aspects of their game. That helped people judge the players properly. Right now someone can come in, face a few balls, show his batting ability and then disappear without showing the other side of his cricket,” he added.Manjrekar further argued that young players should also experience pressure situations in the field, including dealing with mistakes and learning from them.“We don’t expect to see all 3 dimensions of a player. But the more I think about it, it all makes sense and you’re right, Sooryavanshi, you want to see him on the field and see what happens and also be under pressure. If he’s a great batsman but a slight problem in the field, I’d like to see that used. That’s also something we’ve experienced when we’ve experienced a dip in the field. batting and cooling you don’t want one of the highest the level of the sport was so easy,” he added.The former India batsman also pointed out that international cricket requires complete cricketers rather than specialists who contribute in just one discipline. According to him, the Royals may be inadvertently limiting Sooryavanshi’s growth by only using him as an Impact Player.
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Should young players focus on becoming complete all-rounders in cricket?
“Absolutely (Playing as an impact player stunts his growth as a fielder). And that’s the problem that will be there. India won the T20 World Cup despite there being an impact player rule, even though a guy like Shivam Dube doesn’t bowl at all, but he still does well in the T20 World Cup. So things just happen. take a break and enjoy life, I wanted to become a bit more of a test for every player, not just if he is a good bowler, I would like to see him in the field as well,” concluded Manjrekar.
