‘He is more than ready’: Sangakkara backs Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for India call-up

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has firmly established his place in the IPL season, with growing calls for his India debut, as Rajasthan Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara gave a candid assessment of the teenager’s rise.

Sooryavanshi finished with 776 runs from 16 matches at a strike rate of 237.30, emerging as one of the standout performers of the tournament despite RR’s defeat to Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2.

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“Given what Vaibhav has done this season against some of the greatest fast bowlers that the world has, I think he is more than ready to take whatever challenge that we throw at him. I am certain that he will get a national call-up very, very soon. He has played with great maturity and shoulder the responsibility of opening partnership quite well for us this season,” Sangakkara said.

The teenager ended his campaign with a blistering 96 off 47 balls in Qualifier 2 on a difficult pitch, once again showing remarkable composure under pressure.

Sangakkara praised the youngster’s preparation and mindset, highlighting his discipline and match awareness.

“Yes, I think that we’ve got a plan for him,” Sangakkara explained. “We’re not cluttering his mind at all. He comes into our team meetings, contributes and listens, and does a lot of homework. He practices well, watches a lot of videos of opposition bowlers and gets ready for them accordingly. We’re not trying to plant anything extra in his mind. I think he just has to keep it clear and bat with that same courage.”

Sangakkara on Riyan Parag’s leadership and RR’s campaign

“I think Riyan’s first season as captain has been phenomenal,” Sangakkara stated. “He has handled the team well, handled the on-field decisions well; I think that is something that will also grow and develop with all the players and with Riyan himself and the management team we have around him and he will just come back stronger and we will all come back stronger.

He further added that Rajasthan’s turnaround from a ninth-place finish last season to a strong playoff run was a collective effort driven by team spirit and belief.

“No one really gave us the opportunity at the start, but this shows what cricket can do if you play well and enjoy the game,” Sangakkara said.

“But this just shows how cricket can do to you, if you play well and if you have fun playing this game you’re going to perform quite special things.”

Sangakkara also praised the performances of the emerging players in the Rajasthan team.

“I think every one of these players has performed very well and they should be extremely proud of themselves,” he said. “I think Yash had an amazing season and Brijesh also had a very good season, but I want to give credit to everyone around him, from Riyan to Dhruv also – Dhruv always gets underrated sometimes – and then Donovan, Jofra, Jadeja in some parts and Shubham in a couple of games for us. Everyone who came in, always gave their best and so to be able to achieve that [playoffs] this season having finished 9th last year and to drag ourselves here is, I think a great achievement. I don’t think there is any question, we’ve still got some runs to run through these players, but I’m very, very proud of them. They’re a truly wonderful bunch, they are very skilled and they worked very, very hard for us to get here and they’re a very special team.”