Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: The monster boy who wakes up on great occasions | Cricket News

“Pressure is a privilege,” Virat Kohli had said during IPL 2026. It’s one of those lines that sounds good on a poster or your social media post, but it’s much harder to live by. It sounds simple enough, but pressure has a way of changing players. You can make them play it safe, make them worry about the results, the results and forget about the process. You can make them forget the game that brought them here. Yet every now and then a player comes along who seems to enjoy those moments more than anyone else. The bigger the party, the bigger the crowd, the bigger the bet, the livelier it seems.On Sunday in Dambulla, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi looked exactly like that player. India A was playing Sri Lanka A in the final of the Tri-Nation one-day series. The 15-year-old entered the match after four quiet steps. Earlier in the week, he had also been at the center of a nasty on-field altercation against the same opposition, with fingers quickly pointing at him. For many young cricketers, it would have been a reason to return to caution. Not for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Instead, Sooryavanshi went and did what he has been doing more and more in recent months. He is not consumed by the great occasion, but he owns it, as he has done so often. After Sri Lanka A chose to bowl, Sooryavanshi announced his intentions immediately, smashing Mohamed Shiraz for a boundary off the first ball he faced. What followed was an innings that changed the game and once again reinforced a growing belief around him: the bigger the occasion, the more dangerous it becomes.By the time Sri Lanka realized what was happening, Mohamed Shiraz was gone for 26 runs in an over, the scoreboard was racing. I reached fifty in just 11 balls, breaking a List A record of 20 years. The previous record belonged to Kaushalya Weeratne of Sri Lanka, who had reached a half-century in 12 balls for Ragama Cricket Club. Sooryavanshi continued, threatening another record as he raced towards a century before falling for 94 off just 29 deliveries.He launched into Sri Lanka’s attack with a mixture of power and assurance, and it was an innings that seemed almost inevitable as it became the pattern rather than the exception.

“Pressure is a privilege”Every time the stakes have been raised this year, Sooryavanshi has found a way to leave his mark. In February, with the Under-19 World Cup title on the line against England in Harare, I produced 175 from 80 balls to power India to victory. A few months later, the Rajasthan Royals needed something special IPL 2026 Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad, and responded with 29-ball 97. Now, in a tri-series final against Sri Lanka A, he added a 29-ball 94 to that growing collection.The numbers themselves are impressive, but what stands out even more is the consistency of the approach. Sportsmen are often advised to play according to the occasion, to minimize the risk when the pressure increases. Sooryavanshi seems to have chosen a different path. Whether it’s the World Cup final, the IPL knockout or Sunday’s tri-series final in Dambulla, he has faith in the same game that got him here in the first place. He trusts the attack and his wrists.This approach will also lead to failures. He already has. The four low scores before the final were proof of that. There is risk in this approach. Aggressive boats live closer to shore than most. But what makes Sooryavanshi different at the moment is that the setbacks don’t seem to change his aggressive approach. Four poor outings did not make him return to his shell. Controversy against Sri Lanka A has not made him shy. However, the final showed that the pressure seems to sharpen his instincts rather than cloud them.