Rajasthan Royals’ 15-year-old star Vaibhav Sooryavanshi came up against Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar and some of the other top bowlers in the Indian Premier League and emerged triumphant. However, as the IPL 2026 Orange Cap holder came face-to-face with Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Praful Hinge, he lost his wicket on the very first ball. Sooryavanshi’s first-ball duck in the match on Monday left the world of social media stunned, considering SRH isn’t a side known for its bowling performances. The youngster’s performance in the match prompted Irfan Pathan to back his ‘theory’ about him.
On April 10, Irfan had posted on X (formerly Twitter), wondering if the teenage sensation targets big bowlers purposely. After seeing Vaibhav dispatch some of the biggest bowlers in the world, including Bumrah, for boundaries, he failed to achieve the same feat against Hinge, a lesser-known bowler from Vidarbha who hadn’t even played many T20 matches.
My Theory ;). https://t.co/1apjXeRa9l
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 13, 2026
On Monday, Irfan posted on X: “So my theory for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi isn’t wrong ;)”
So my theory for Vaibhav Suyanvanshi isn’t wrong 😉
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 13, 2026
Many counter arguments, however, were shared in the comments box of Irfan’s post. Some fans argued that Vaibhav is keen to hit quick runs, no matter the bowler.
Praful Hinge’s Memorable Debut
When RR opened, a pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi took to the field, all eyes were on the latter, who had not so long ago rattled a championship-winning Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) attack of Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Krunal Pandya etc with an audacious 26-ball 78, decorated with eight fours and seven sixes.
Having been displaced by Klaasen from his Orange Cap supremacy, Sooryavanshi looked all set for another blazing knock. The hype of a 15-year-old Sooryavanshi met Praful, whose signing by SRH during the auction for Rs 30 lakh had largely gone unnoticed amongst all the chatter about Aussie all-rounder Cameron Green and CSK’s two big young domestic cricket signees, Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma, both worth Rs 14.20 crores.
On his second ball, the first faced by Sooryavanshi, the latter tried to go big over cow corner, and the ball went straight into the hands of Salil. Cricket’s nature as a big leveller had finally shown Sooryavanshi the long way back to pavilion for a golden duck. While this moment itself was enough to earn Hinge plenty of eyeballs, Dhruv Jurel played the delivery into his stumps two balls later, and the wicketkeeper-batter’s name on the IPL graphic dimmed off without a run to his name. Praful ended the over in style, trapping big-hitting South African Lhuan Dre Pretorious for a second-ball duck. RR was 1/3 after the first over.
With ANI Inputs
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