Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra believes it would be imperative for Gujarat Titans to remove Vaibhav Suryavanshi early to stand a chance against Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier of the ongoing IPL 2026.
The renowned commentator said Suryavanshi would take the game away from GT if he goes on to play 40 balls. The prodigy batter scored a fantastic knock of 97 runs off just 29 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator on Wednesday and he is once again going to hold the key for RR.
Suryavanshi is currently the Orange Cap holder, with 680 runs in 15 matches at an average of 45.33 and a strike rate of 242.85.
“We had not envisaged that a 15-year-old kid could dictate everything, that all your bowling plans could revolve around a kid. It’s not like people have not come with plans. Hyderabad had also come with a plan. They tried bowling yorkers at the start, but once you missed that mark and he hit two or three sixes, whether it was Pat Cummins or Eshan Malinga, they went off their plan massively,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“It’s imperative for Gujarat to stop Vaibhav. How rarely do we say that it’s imperative? We haven’t said that even for Abhishek, Ishan, Rohit, or Virat, that if he fires, you won’t survive at all. We are saying that with him, that if he plays 40 balls, it’s over. He will score his hundred by the 11th over, and then the team will be close to 150. This kid is a different storm. It’s very difficult to understand this storm,” he added.
The former Delhi cricketer said RR and GT have a contrasting opening pair and added that Vaibhav Suryavanshi has done the bulk of the scoring while opening with Jaiswal.
“If there is control on one side, there is chaos on the other. If you look at it in terms of contribution, the GT openers have together scored 719 runs. The opposing ones have also scored 747. They have run at a strike rate of 206. If you see the split, Vaibhav alone has scored 426, and that is the big difference, because Yashasvi Jaiswal has a contribution of 291,” he said.
The former KKR batter highlighted that RR’s philosophy of batting aggressively will be more successful while batting first.
“The partnership’s strike rate is 206, but Vaibhav runs faster than that. Which philosophy would work more? There are more chances of RR’s philosophy working while batting first because then there are no variables. There will be no scoreboard pressure. You can start a little fearlessly while batting first. You can actually control and destroy the Powerplay if you bat first,” Chopra elaborated.
RR will take on GT in the second qualifier on Friday.
