Whenever Vaibhav Suryavanshi comes to the crease with his bat, it is clear that he will score as many boundaries in 10-15 balls as many batsmen are able to score in their entire innings. With his explosive batting, Vaibhav has made millions and crores his fans. But it seems that one failure has forced this fearless 15 year old batsman to change as well. Something similar was seen in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, where he had to wait for a long time to hit his first six.
All eyes were on Vaibhav Suryavanshi in the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens on Sunday 19 April. This star opener of Royals has created such a status in just one year of his career that the expectations from him have also increased equally. Even in IPL 2026, Vaibhav destroyed big bowlers with his explosive batting. But against Kolkata he looked completely changed.
So far this season, Vaibhav, who has hit a six or a four on the very first ball against great bowlers like Josh Hazlewood, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, started the innings with 1 run this time. This in itself was a bit surprising. But an even more shocking scene was seen after this, when Vaibhav did not play a single shot in the air for the first 14 balls of his innings and concentrated only on scoring fours by playing ground shots.
Vaibhav hit his first six of this innings on the 15th ball. This was the first time in this season, when Vaibhav had to wait so long to hit a six. Earlier, against Gujarat Titans, he had hit his first six on the 14th ball. Whereas against Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, he has been off to a great start by hitting sixes within the first 10 balls.
Contrary to expectations, despite a slow start, Vaibhav Suryavanshi kept batting without any problem at a strike rate of more than 160. However, this was the first time in his IPL career, when despite facing more than 25 balls, he could not score a half-century. Vaibhav was sent back to the pavilion by Varun Chakraborty in the 9th over. In his innings he scored 46 runs in 28 balls, which included 6 fours and 2 sixes. This was Vaibhav's slowest innings this season. His strike rate was 163, whereas earlier against Gujarat his strike rate was 172.
This changed style of Vaibhav came right after that match, which surprised everyone. In the last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he was out without opening his account on his very first ball. He was dismissed by Praful Hinge, who was debuting in IPL. In that match, Vaibhav was caught out while trying to hit a six on the very first ball. In such a situation, the hesitation due to his previous failure in batting against KKR was clearly visible.
