How To Get Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Out? Ex-England Pacer Devises Plan To Dismiss 15-Year-Old: "Catch Him Off Guard"
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has taken Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood to the cleaners in IPL 2026, but former England pacer Steven Finn has come up with a plan to get him out.
- Former England pacer Steven Finn tried to devise a plan to dismiss 15-year-old sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
- "A few in and around the tight line and back of the length, or over the top of the stumps," Finn said
- "Then throw in a full, slow, wide one and make him reach for it, you could catch him off guard," he added
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's second year in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is arguably going even better than his first. While he is yet to hit a century in IPL 2026, Sooryavanshi has smashed two 15-ball fifties in the opening six games, amassing 246 runs in the process. In the process, the 15-year-old even took two of modern-day T20's best bowlers - Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood - to the cleaners. However, former England pacer Steven Finn tried to devise a plan for bowlers to get Sooryavanshi out.
While Finn initially joked that a bowler should pretend to have injured his calf or hamstring before bowling to Sooryavanshi, he eventually tried to come up with a plan to dismiss him.
"Probably pull a calf or a hamstring or something before your captain asks you to bowl," said Finn jokingly, speaking with former teammate and England pace great Stuart Broad on the 'For the Love of Cricket' podcast.
"It looks incredibly hard, doesn't it? Even just watching the videos of him training in the nets against Jofra Archer, who is trying everything. Full and wide, short, full and straight... and all of them were going to the boundary," Finn observed.
Finn suggested that keeping a tight line and then catching him by surprise could be a method of getting him out.
"When someone likes to play as free-flowing as he does, you'd think a few in and around the tight line and the back of the length, or over the top of the stumps, try to protect the leg-side to begin with," Finn said.
"And then if you could throw in like a full, slow, wide one and make him reach for it out there on the back of three or four tight deliveries, you could catch him off guard," he added.
"At the moment it seems to be pot luck as to whether you get him or not," Finn further said.
Perhaps the most defining moment of Sooryavanshi's breathtaking ability came in Rajasthan Royals' match against Mumbai Indians, when the 15-year-old smashed Jasprit Bumrah for a massive first-ball six.
Steven Finn
England Cricket Team
India Cricket Team
Rajasthan Royals