Vaibhav Suryavanshi managed to grab the eyeballs of every single cricket fan in his very first IPL game. The then 13-year-old landed a Rs 1.10 crore contract with the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025 as he was picked up after his prowess with the bat and his ability to explode at will was witnessed by the team management and the scouts. At the BCCI NAMAN Awards 2026 on Sunday, former RR captain Sanju Samson recalled how Suryavanshi had scripted his first ball six and compared his batting to playing in a video game.
Suryavanshi’s first-ball six on IPL debut decoded
In a conversation with Harsha Bhogle along with Hardik Pandya and Abhishek Sharma on stage, Suryavanshi was asked what was he told before his very first IPL game and how he had hit a six off his very first delivery. While the 14-year-old RR sensation attempted to answer, he was cut short by Sanju, who then went on to share an anecdote.
“Sir (Dravid) invited him to the room. He said Sanju we need to talk to him (Suryavanshi), he’s a very young kid. We have to tell him how to go about it. So Rahul sir asked ‘Vaibhav what’s the plan?’ He said, ‘aise kuch nahi hai sir, hum to khelenge (nothing as such sir, I will play’. ‘What is your game plan?’ He said ‘if I get it right at the start, then I will hit a six right then’. That is exactly what he did. He was playing a video game literally,” Samson said.
“The first ball I faced in IPL was against LSG where I hit a six over the covers. Before the match, sir (Dravid) and Sanju bhaiya (Samson) called me to their room and asked me what do you want to do. I told them I don’t want to do anything, if I get…” Suryavanshi said before he was cut off by Sanju Samson.
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