It sounds almost impossible: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is yet to step into India colours, but the buzz around him has already taken on near-mythic proportions. Rajasthan Royals’ cricket director Zubin Bharucha has opened up on how the franchise moved quickly to lock in the teenager. He said the Royals had earmarked ₹10 crore the moment their scouts saw Sooryavanshi bat during trials.
From there, the talk only intensified. Some fans and commentators have drawn bizarre comparisons, suggesting he could be playing with the help of a “chip” in his bat. Others, including Jos Buttler, have gone even further with jokes about whether he’s human at all. Yet for all the noise, the simple reality remains: Sooryavanshi is only 15. Even so, the cricket world has not often seen this kind of promise since the late 1980s, when Sachin Tendulkar first began to blaze a trail.
Two men who have been close to the making of his career have now shared fresh details on how everything came together. Samar Qadri—who previously played first-class cricket for Jharkhand and Bihar and later worked as a talent scout for Rajasthan Royals—still remembers the moment he first heard about Sooryavanshi and was stunned when he bowled to the 13-year-old.
“I had seen him in Patna. I was playing a match and had heard a lot about him. There’s a boy, there’s a kid who plays amazingly well—so I got to see him when I bowled to him. And I saw the talent because I’m a leg-spinner and I know what it takes to bowl to left-handers. He hit me over the covers—that was special. Those skills were amazing,” Qadri said on Wisden Cricket.
Qadri added that he got the scouting chance in 2023. He said Zubin Bharucha asked him to take a look, and he immediately pitched Sooryavanshi’s case. “Zubin sir asked me to scout. I told him, ‘Sir, there’s a boy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, from Bihar. You should look at him. He’s terrific.’ He went to Chennai, and many scouts were there—he scored 150-plus in just 60 balls. He’s a kid, he likes to keep it enjoyable, and he has a calm demeanour. He doesn’t try to show off. The sky is the limit. He can play for the Indian team for at least 20 years—this is my prediction. He also enjoys red-ball cricket. You can’t tell me he won’t succeed. He told me so,” Qadri recalled.
While Qadri’s account set the scene, Bharucha’s version of events is the one that has stayed with Royals’ camp. Bharucha said he still gets goosebumps when he thinks about the day the youngster turned up for RR trials. In Bharucha’s telling, one look was enough to realise something rare was in front of him, and then the youngster went on to leave him completely speechless after an initial burst of action.
“It’s absolutely surreal. If I look back at the great players I’ve worked with and watched—Sanju Samson, for example—he played the first ball for six. Jaiswal flicked it over his shoulder, and then Vaibhav walked in. Same scenario, first ball again. But the ball before that, there was a right-hander on strike. Then this left-arm seamer was bowling sharp inswingers. Vaibhav came on strike and I figured he’d be tested, challenged, or beaten. The next ball—straightaway—it was hammered for six. I thought, I’m not sure this is normal,” Bharucha told Wisden Cricket.
Bharucha then described what he did immediately after the trial ended. With express pace bowlers not available, he sent everyone away and brought Sooryavanshi back for a more pointed test. He wanted the side-arm and quick angles to challenge the youngster properly. “In my mind, I knew something strange was happening. The trial ended, and what I did was—there were no express pace bowlers—so I sent everybody away and quietly called him back. We had some side-armers who were tall and quick. I wanted them to test Vaibhav and told him, ‘Go at him. Let him have it’. He left 3-4 balls and then smacked the next one into the sight screen. I knew immediately, and I sent a message to the CEO saying we have something completely generational here. He’s the best player I have seen since Sachin Tendulkar,” Bharucha added.
In a separate discussion, Bharucha shared screenshots of his chat with the Royals CEO, which hinted that Sooryavanshi forced a rethink of plans. The timing was crucial: this happened just four days before the IPL 2025 mega auction, when the franchise had to decide how to act on a talent that suddenly looked too big to ignore.
Bharucha: All plans gone for a toss, boss.
Jake Lush McCrum (CEO): Now this is exciting.
Bharucha: Remember, we kept aside 10 crore for Jaiswal (albeit small action), now what?
McCrum: More details, please, sir.
Bharucha: Probably better than Jaiswal when he first came. Also, left-handed, but this guy is only 13. Hahaha. So, probably the best 13-year-old in the history of our sport after SRT (Sachin Tendulkar)
Bharucha: I spoke to RSD (Rahul Dravid) as well and have informed him of the same.
McCrum: When will he be IPL-ready?
Bharucha: It’s based on how much work we can put in. But he is already close. I would bank all the money kept aside on an opener and put it on him. Because we have two guys who have stepped up.
RR’s decision also makes sense in the context of their earlier retention plans. A few weeks before, the franchise had announced their retained players, with Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal headlining the list at ₹18 crore each. Against that backdrop, Sooryavanshi’s arrival became the surprise high-value bet—he was secured for just ₹1.1 crore, and in only a year he has already emerged as something of a poster boy for Indian cricket.
