Few players had a better view than Jos Buttler when Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed his record-breaking century for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans in Indian Premier League 2025.
Buttler, who made 3219 runs in 82 matches at an average of 42.35 and a strike rate of 147.79 during his time with the Royals, represented the Titans last season.
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Keeping wickets for GT against RR in the match where Vaibhav became the cynosure of all eyes, the Englishman had a ringside view of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s belligerent onslaught.
"It's inspiring and deflating at the same time. This guy's 20 years younger than me and he's just smashing us all around the park,” the 34-year-old Buttler told his former England team-mate Stuart Broad on a YouTube podcast.
”But yes, absolutely like shockwaves throughout the sort of cricket world, I think, a 14-year-old guy getting picked out, that was the story wasn't it, he was in the auction as the youngest and Jimmy (Anderson) being the oldest in the age difference," he added.
Vaibhav’s blistering 35-ball hundred against Gujarat Titans was the fastest century by an Indian batter in the IPL. It was also the second-fastest hundred in the IPL overall behind Chris Gayle.
Buttler lauded the calibre of the youngster’s knock while factoring in the quality of the bowling attack the teenage prodigy was up against. The knock consisted of 11 sixes and seven fours.
"The innings against us, our bowling attack has Mohammed Siraj, brilliant international bowler, Prasidh Krishna, international bowler, Rashid Khan, best T20 bowler. And just the scale of the sixes, well, they're not just going over the boundaries, they were big sixes. And 35 ball 100, it was outrageous,” Buttler recalled.
Buttler believes Vaibhav’s fearless approach to batting was evident from the very first ball of his IPL career when he launched international pacer Shardul Thakur into the stands on debut against the Lucknow Super Giants.
"He actually hit his first ball for six in the IPL. He played two or three games, I think before he played against us. So first ball he's ever faced in the IPL, he sort of gave himself a bit of room and smacked it over wide long off for a six and that fearlessness and I think I love these guys out there now,” the former Royals stalwart opined.
The 34-year-old wicketkeeper batter also went on to add why he believes that there is more than one dimension to Vaibhav’s game while discussing the left-hander’s mature 33-ball 57 against Chennai Super Kings in the Royals last match of the season.
"I was watching on the TV and Chennai have R Ashwin, (Ravindra) Jadeja, proper season pros, and he'd bang, hit them out into the stands, then sort of knock one out to cover, sort of like, I'm so in control, I'll just take one now, drop down the other end. And at that moment, I'm like, this guy's the best player I've ever seen,” Buttler enthused.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi finished IPL 2025 with 252 runs in seven games at an average of 36.00 and a whopping strike rate of 206.56.
His phenomenal strike rate earned him the IPL 2025 Super Striker of the Season award.
Vaibhav is currently on tour in England as a part of the India U19 team. They are scheduled to play a 50-over warm-up game, five Youth ODIs and two multi-day matches against England, starting June 24.
