Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s ‘only weakness’ that Harry Brook’s team can target in India vs England T20Is

6 hours ago 18

The bat swing of Garry Sobers, the power of Chris Gayle, a prodigy like Sachin Tendulkar, and the talent of AB de Villiers. This might be an apt description of whatever Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is. The cricketing world has never seen anything like him. Some are already calling him the best since Don Bradman.

That seems a bit premature to say the least. But Sooryavanshi outbatted everyone in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season. A strike rate of 170 is exceptional. Well, not when compared to him. The 15-year-old scored 2.3 runs per ball. He’s managed to find a place in the India squad despite the team being fresh off a title run at the T20 World Cup 2026.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi changing the game

There are calls to drop Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, and Tilak Varma to make space for him. He’s changing the way openers bat in the powerplay, and that too at 15. No teenager, not even Tendulkar, managed that. It isn’t just the IPL. Exactly a week ago, Sooryavanshi smashed the fastest List A half-century against Sri Lanka A, which had international players.

Former England captain, Michael Vaughan, believes Sooryavanshi is changing T20 cricket as we know it. The revolution started with the impact player, but the 15-year-old has taken it to another level.

“T20 cricket, particularly through Sooryavanshi, has taken the game to 230 par. The batters are going harder than ever, and he’s leading the trend. A 15-year-old kid is sending the message to the rest of the world that T20 cricket can go to another level. He just scored an 11-ball List A fifty against Sri Lanka A. You look at the Eliminator games for Rajasthan; he’s coped with the pressure and got a couple of 90s off 30-odd balls. He’s taken the T20 game to a different level,” Vaughan said on Ajinkya Rahane’s YouTube channel.

Fielding – his only weakness?

But the cricketer-turned-broadcaster believes there is a slight chink in Sooryavanshi’s armour. It isn’t anything related to his batting but fielding. In the IPL 2026 season, we didn’t see the 15-year-old spend too much time in the field. After 23 matches, he’s got just 2 in the league.

He doesn’t seem to the fastest. Of course, he’s just 15 and still growing. We saw him struggle a bit in the IPL, but he looked much better for India A. However, if there’s a weakness, Vaughan believes it’s his fielding and he wants England to target that in the upcoming India vs England T20I series, starting July 1.

“He’s clearly got a good eye and great cricket brain. The one thing he’s going to have to cope with is his fielding. There’s no impact sub where he can sit on the bench. If I were England, I’d ask India to field first because then by the time Sooryavanshi comes to bat, he might be tired,” Vaughan added.