Rajasthan Royals teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued his dream IPL 2026 campaign by rewriting multiple records during the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh on Wednesday. The 15-year-old prodigy not only became the youngest player to score 600 runs in an IPL season but also surpassed Chris Gayle’s long-standing record for the most sixes in a single edition of the tournament.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi breaks Chris Gayle’s six-hitting record
Sooryavanshi entered the Eliminator as the leading six-hitter of IPL 2026 and extended his dominance further. The Rajasthan Royals opener now has 60 sixes this season, surpassing Chris Gayle’s previous IPL record of 59 maximums set during the 2012 season.
Add Zee News as a Preferred Source
Most sixes in a single IPL season
1. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi – 60 (2026) *
2. Chris Gayle – 59 (2012)
3. Andre Russell – 52 (2019)
4. Chris Gayle – 51 (2013)
5. Jos Buttler – 45 (2022)
Youngest batter to reach 600 runs in IPL history
The Rajasthan Royals opener also became the youngest player ever to complete 600 runs in an IPL season. The record was previously held by Rishabh Pant, who achieved the milestone for Delhi Daredevils during the 2018 edition.
Sooryavanshi’s consistency throughout the tournament has been one of the biggest reasons behind Rajasthan Royals’ successful campaign. Remarkably, he has maintained a strike rate above 230 while crossing the 600-run mark, a feat unmatched in T20 cricket.
No batter before him had scored 600 or more runs in a T20 tournament while maintaining a strike rate above 200, highlighting the unique nature of his season.
Before the Eliminator, Sooryavanshi had already become the teenager with the highest aggregate in a T20 tournament. He overtook Devdutt Padikkal’s tally of 580 runs in the 2019-20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign for Karnataka.
Equals Suresh Raina’s Playoff record
As if breaking multiple tournament records was not enough, Sooryavanshi also matched one of the most iconic IPL playoff achievements. The left-handed opener smashed a blistering half-century in just 16 balls, equalling Suresh Raina’s record for the fastest fifty in IPL playoff history.
Raina had achieved the feat for Kings XI Punjab in the 2014 playoffs, and more than a decade later, Sooryavanshi joined the elite list with another breathtaking display of power-hitting.
Playing XIs:
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Donovan Ferreira, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Punja
Impact substitutes: Shubham Dubey, Sushant Mishra, Amanal Perala, Ravi Bishnoi, Tushar Deshpande
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Smaran Ravichandran, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins (c), Shivang Kumar, Eshan Malinga, Sakib Hussain, Praful Hinge
Impact substitutes: Aniket Verma, Salil Arora, Liam Livingstone, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel
