new delhi, May 25
Fifteen-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has set his sights on rewriting T20 history, saying he wants to score the format’s first-ever double century and break Chris Gayle’s record highest score of 175 not out.
Speaking on former England batter Kevin Pietersen’s YouTube show ‘The Switch’, the Rajasthan Royals youngster said he is not focused on celebrating half-centuries and instead wants to achieve bigger milestones in T20 cricket.
“No, not that much (on celebrating 50s). I want to score 200 in T20s. I want to break Gayle’s record,” the teenager told Pietersen.
Gayle’s unbeaten 175 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Pune Warriors India in IPL 2013 remains the highest individual score in T20 cricket.
The West Indies legend reached his century in just 30 balls, still the fastest hundred in IPL history.
Sooryavanshi has enjoyed a remarkable IPL 2026 season for the Royals, scoring 583 runs in 14 matches at an average of 41.64 and a strike rate of 232.27. His tally includes one century and three fifties, while his 53 sixes are the most by an Indian in a single IPL season. He is now only seven sixes away from Gayle’s IPL record of 59 sixes in a season.
The Bihar batter had already made headlines last year after becoming the youngest IPL player at 14. He smashed a 35-ball century against Gujarat Titans, the fastest IPL hundred by an Indian, and became the youngest centurion in T20 cricket.
Sooryavanshi also dominated the U-19 World Cup this year, scoring 439 runs in seven matches with a strike rate close to 170. He hit a tournament-record 30 sixes, breaking the previous mark held by South Africa’s Dewald Brevis.
He is currently India’s leading run-scorer in U-19 ODIs with 1,412 runs in 25 innings, including four centuries.
The left-hander’s rise began in October 2024 when he scored a 58-ball century for India U-19 against Australia U-19, the fastest hundred by an Indian in Youth Tests.
Since then, he has continued to break records in domestic cricket, including becoming the youngest centurion in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and one of the youngest players to score a List A century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
