Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin showered praise on Vaibhav Suryavanshi after Rajasthan Royals thumped Sunrisers Hyderabad by 47 runs in the eliminator in the ongoing IPL 2026 at New Chandigarh on Wednesday.
Ashwin praised the youngster for improving his technique and shot selection during the ongoing season. The former off-spinner noted that Suryavanshi was earlier top-edging the ball however, he played an upper cut against the same ball against the Orange Army.
Suryanvanshi smashed a magnum opus knock of 97 runs off just 29 balls with the help of five fours and 12 sixes as he batted at his absolute best against SRH. Thus, he played an instrumental role in helping RR post an above-par score of 243 runs on the board.
Ashwin said on his YouTube Channel, “I don’t want to play that 15-year-old age card, but tell me, how many matches would he have played at this age to bat with such mental maturity? He hit an upper cut for a six today. He was getting the top edge while trying to hit the same ball in the front at the beginning of the season. What can I say when a 15-year-old can make such changes in the middle of the season?”
Ashwin said it would be difficult for the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel to ignore Suryavanshi.
“How do we overlook Vaibhav Suryavanshi? There is only one thing that we can tell him: ‘You are underage, wait till you turn 18.’ Apart from that, there is no reason to stop him.”
The former CSK spinner added that Suryavanshi is known to play crucial knocks in the big matches of the major tournaments. Suryavanshi had smashed a brilliant knock of 175 runs against England Under-19 in the final of the World Cup.
“Do you know what his speciality is? It’s not shot-making, Orange Cap, most sixes record, strike rate, or average. I am telling you, the bigger the match is, the bigger his bat talks. If you remember the U19 final between India and England, it was expected to be a tight game. Everyone expected England to play well too, but this guy did not give England any chance.”
Ashwin noted that Suryavanshi was not too bothered about missing out on his personal milestone.
“I just want to tell his parents to do whatever needs to be done to cast off the evil eye. This is not normal. This kid was talking to Harsha Bhogle in the post-match interview. Harsha asked him about his hundred, and he said, ‘Hundreds will come, but it’s fine, I tried for the team.’ It struck him after speaking, and he started blushing. The point is, the way he bats, a century is nothing for him; it will definitely come. He actually needs to work on stopping himself,” Ashwin elaborated.
RR will face GT in the second qualifier on Friday.
