IPL: Vaibhav's acid test comes up against Bumrah and Boult next

Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the 14-year-old wonder who with a 35-ball century on Monday, will hog the spotlight again as Rajasthan Royals host a resurgent Mumbai Indians at the Sawai ManSingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday.

‘’The whole world has seen what he has done — the quality he showed as a 14-year-old. This is the beauty of the tournament,’’ remarked Trent Boult, the Kiwi pace warhead who moved back to Mumbai after he was released by the Royals ahead of last year’s mega auction. The mood is distinctly upbeat in the Mumbai Paltan camp again after having won five matches in a row after a disastrous start as they are now in second position in the table with 12 points.

As the euphoria dies down, Vaibhav — in his role as the opening partner of Yashasvi Jaiswal — will be undergoing a bigger scrutiny against an attack comprising of two of the most wily speedsters in the game in Boult and Jasprit Bumrah. The Jaipur wicket looked full of runs in the Royals-Gujarat Titans game and a lack of bounce, but there will be no special favour for him in the remaining matches.

Ravi Shastri, former India head coach and a TV pundit in IPL, has already issued a warning for the youngster. As someone who has seen the likes of Sachin Tendulkar bloom, Shastri wanted the media to go a bit easy on the youngster: “Just let him play. I would say just let him play a bit because it’s at that age, there’s bound to be failure as well. It’s how he handles failure, as people will come up with new things,’’ he told ICC Review.

“There’ll be lots of short stuff thrown at him the next time he comes out to bat because when you tonk someone’s first ball for six, then you show no mercy,’’ Shastri said.

This amazing kid 🙌 #vaibhavsuryavanshi pic.twitter.com/EVBJfD1WRq

— Kadambini Sharma (@SharmaKadambini) April 29, 2025

“Then you don’t care whether he’s 14 years old or 12 years old or 20 years old. The menu is the same that you dish out. So, he’ll have to get used to that and once we see him handling that then you can make a proper judgement,’’ he added.

The Royals management, meanwhile, had been protective about the youngster ever since he joined their formative camp in Nagpur nearly four months back. “We have been watching it in the nets the last few months. So we knew what he was capable of and what kind of shots he could play,’’ remarked Vikram Rathour, their batting coach, who addressed the media conference after the Titans game instead of Player of the Match Vaibhav.

‘’He’s a special, special talent. Technically, he has a great downswing, which helps him generate that kind of power. Today, he showed everyone exactly how good he is. Honestly, you could keep talking about that knock endlessly,” added Rathour, who had been India’s batting coach during the Rahul Dravid regime.