Vaibhav Sooryavanshi looks ahead to his version of holiday homework•BCCI
A total of 583 runs in 14 innings, striking at 232.37. No matter what happens in the eliminator, this has been a GOATed season for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Currently on 53 sixes, he needs seven more to break Chris Gayle’s all-time record for the most sixes in an IPL season. If he manages to do that, RR will be in a fairly solid position. A quiet rivalry has developed between Sooryavanshi and the SRH bowlers over the course of the season. Sooryavanshi fell for a first-ball duck to Hinge when the two teams first met in IPL 2026. While collecting the Player of the Match award, Hinge had said: “I just wanted to dismiss him [Sooryavanshi] on the first ball, that was the plan.” Sooryavanshi responded by smoking 103 off 37 balls when RR next met SRH. He thumped 30 off nine balls against Hinge, with one four and four sixes and 30 off ten against Sakib, with one four and four sixes. Round three of the Sooryavanshi vs SRH battle could decide the contest.
If there’s Sooryavanshi at one end, there’s Abhishek Sharma at the other. It’s been another exemplary season for the SRH opener: 563 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of 206.22. This is already Abhishek’s best IPL season in terms of runs and he will once again be a critical asset for SRH in the eliminator. Like Sooryavanshi, Abhishek too was dismissed for a first-ball duck when SRH and RR clashed in Hyderabad but made amends by crashing a 29-ball 57 in Jaipur 12 days later. Abhishek does not have a great record in IPL playoffs: 17 runs in three innings at an average of 5.70. Can he right the wrongs and take SRH into Qualifier 2?
