'Don Bradman In T20 Cricket At Age Of 15': Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Gets Grandest Praise Yet, That Too From IPL Rival
The praises for 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi keep getting bigger and bigger after his match-winning 97 off 29 in the IPL 2026 Eliminator.
- LSG Director of Cricket Tom Moody compared RR wonderkid Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to the legendary Don Bradman
- "Bradman nearly averaged 100 in Tests. Drop-off to next best was around 60. It's that in T20 at age 15": Moody
- "We're witnessing something I don't think we've seen in our lifetime in this format of the game": Moody
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's performances in IPL 2026 have left several experts in disbelief. On Wednesday, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) wonderkid smashed 97 off 29 balls in the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), narrowly missing out on Chris Gayle's record for the fastest IPL hundred. While Sooryavanshi has received different types of compliments after the knock, perhaps none stand out more than the one given by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) Global Director of Cricket, Tom Moody. Moody compared Sooryavanshi's present dominance in T20 cricket to legendary Australia batter Don Bradman's dominance in Test cricket.
"I'm sort of trying to get my head around how to explain it. The only way to explain it is to ask someone to watch it and come up with their own description, because we're witnessing something I don't think we've seen in our lifetime in this format of the game, or even any format of the game. We've seen amazing things, but not to this extreme," Moody said on Sooryavanshi, speaking on ESPNcricinfo.
"The only thing I can take it back to is what Bradman was doing, Bradman nearly averaged 100 in Test cricket, and the drop-off to the next best was around 60, so that's the separation we're talking about. It's that in T20 cricket at the age of 15," he added.
Bradman holds the record for the highest Test average at 99.94, and is widely regarded as one of, if not the greatest Test batter of all time. However, such has been Sooryavanshi's impact in IPL 2026 that even a comparison to Bradman does not seem flabbergasting. Despite being part of a rival team to Sooryavanshi's Rajasthan Royals, Moody could not help but draw the comparison.
At the age of 15, in just his second IPL season, Sooryavanshi sits at the top of the run-scoring charts, ahead of established stars like Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Heinrich Klaasen and KL Rahul. He has made 680 runs in 15 matches at an astonishing strike-rate of 242.85.
Rajasthan Royals
Lucknow Super Giants