Bhuvneshwar Kumar showed a big heart after being trounced by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi following Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) first defeat of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Dr Bhupen Hazarika Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Friday (April 10). The Royals won their fourth game in a row as they thrashed the defending champions by six wickets with 12 balls to spare.
Sooryavanshi was the star of the show as he made 28 runs in just 76 balls at a strike rate of 300 in the chase of 202. The 15-year-old hit eight boundaries and seven sixes in his innings as he hit his second half-century of the season. The youngster now holds the orange cap with 200 runs in four games.
While Bhuvneshwar had dismissed Sooryavanshi last year, the RR opener took the attack to him in yesterday’s clash. Australian star Josh Hazlewood also faced the wrath of the teenager as the player did not show any regard for the senior duo’s experience and pedigree just days after his onslaught against Jasprit Bumrah.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar Reserves High Praise For Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
Bhuvneshwar praised Sooryavanshi’s innings and claimed that RCB bowlers tried everything they could. He also praised the youngster for his maturity. The IPL’s most prolific pacer in history also pointed out that he is not slogging and playing proper cricketing shots.
“It’s a T20 game, I mean. Yes, he is young, and he is batting very well. He is batting maturely, but we never felt that somebody was thrashing us. If a 15-year-old can bat like this, even if he is 25 or 15, I think it’s part of the T20 game. Yes, we had plans, we dropped a catch too, but that happens in cricket. So we couldn’t execute what we wanted to do, and I think it is a part of T20, so we are not worried that much.
“We tried what we could do. I know that from the outside, the game looks a little slow compared to how it looks inside. But we did what we could, like using a fast bowler and bowling in different ways. Vaibhav played good shots. So I think we felt that we couldn’t do anything different. It is difficult to use spinners in powerplay, and we had only one left-arm spinner, as we used an Impact instead of Suyaash. So we didn’t have an off-spinner, and for a left-arm bowler to face a left-arm batter, it makes sense, and he batted really well,” said Bhuvneshwar in a post-match press conference.
“The way he is hitting shots. He is not slogging, he is hitting proper shots. For a 15-year-old, he is too mature. So yes, I think we should give him credit for the way he is batting, and he is batting really well. So he deserves all the credit,” Bhuvneshwar concluded.
