Rajasthan Royals’ Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara recently revealed how the team unearthed one of Indian cricket’s most exciting up-and-coming talents, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, back in 2023 when the youngster was just 11 years old.

"Sooryavanshi has already shown himself to be a very special talent," Sangakkara told Sky Sports. "In 2023, one of the Rajasthan Royals analysts sent through a text saying there's a very special player we need to watch, get to trials, and look to sign.”

The Royals, after monitoring the youngster closely for a year, would go on to sign up Vaibhav at the IPL 2025 mega auction, making him the youngest player to ever to land a contract for any Indian Premier League team.

“And the first time I saw him live was after we had signed him, apart from watching some videos of him batting in the nets in Guwahati, batting against Jofra Archer and other seamers that we had. And he made it look very, very easy."

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The Sri Lankan legend also went on to elaborate on what sets the hard-hitting left-hander apart technically and temperamentally.

"He had a lot of time, the sound of his bat was like a gunshot every single time he contacted the ball. His bat swing is lovely. It's nice and wide outside the stump and it's very free flowing. He's got a lot of time,” Sangakkara said.

“His movements are very, very simple and minimal and he's very enthusiastic about developing his shot repertoire and all the shots that you can want in a T20 batter. This is just a start for him to become even better and hopefully very, very special,” he added.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi marked his arrival on the cricketing stage with the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025 and lived up to the hype with a brilliant debut campaign.

Soon after becoming the youngest player in the IPL, he became the youngest-ever centurion in the competition’s history with a 35-ball ton against the Gujarat Titans.

The knock also made him the fastest Indian to reach three figures in the league’s history and the second-fastest overall, behind only Chris Gayle.

The 14-year-old made 252 runs in seven games at an average of 36.00 and a whopping strike rate of 206.56 in IPL 2025.

His stunning strike rate also saw him win the IPL 2025 Super Striker of the Season award in his debut season.

After the IPL, Vaibhav has continued to make waves across the cricketing world with the Indian U19 cricket team during the ongoing IND U19 vs ENG U19 series in England.

The teenager scored the fastest century in the history of men’s Youth ODIs in the fourth match of the series against England U19 earlier this month.

Vainbhav became the youngest to score a century in U19 ODI cricket in the process.

The talented left-hander also struck the second-fastest hundred in men’s Youth Tests against Australia U19 in Chennai last year when he reached the three-figure mark in 58 balls, putting him behind England’s Moeen Ali, who hit a 56-ball hundred in 2005.