The 15-year-old finished the season with 776 runs from 16 matches at an average of 48.50 and a strike rate of 237.31 – the most destructive batting campaign in the history of T20 cricket.
He is the first batter ever to score 600-plus runs in a T20 tournament while striking at above 200. No one has come close to either milestone individually, let alone both in the same season.
The sixes told their own story. Sooryavanshi finished the season with 65 sixes in the league stage and Eliminator alone – the most by any batter in a single T20 tournament, surpassing Chris Gayle’s 59 from IPL 2012.
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By the end of Qualifier 2 his total had reached 72, a record that may stand for a generation.
The wagon wheel shows where they went – 18 over midwicket, 16 through square leg, 13 over long on and 11 over fine leg. The off side barely got a look in.
He scored 490 runs in the powerplay – the most by any batter in a single IPL season, surpassing David Warner’s 467 from 2016. He hit 10 or more sixes in an innings four times, equalling Chris Gayle’s all-time record.
He took a 16-ball fifty in the Eliminator, the joint fastest fifty in IPL playoff history, equalling Suresh Raina’s record from 2014.
His two playoff innings – 97 off 29 balls in the Eliminator and 96 off 47 in Qualifier 2 — came on the biggest stages of the competition and against the best bowlers in the world. He missed two centuries by a combined seven runs.
Rajasthan Royals did not win the title. But this IPL will be remembered for one name, one season and one player who rewrote the record books at an age when most cricketers are still playing school cricket.
Photo: REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
