‘They might die’: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi terrifies bowlers, called ‘Baby Hulk’

Nagpur, March 2026 – Rajasthan Royals opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi turned 15 today, but the teenager has already forced seasoned net bowlers to shorten their length and hold their breath. “If he hits it straight, they might die,” India A captain Jitesh Sharma said on Ranveer Allahbadia’s podcast, explaining why academy trundlers refuse to pitch the ball up to the left-handed phenomenon they now call “Baby Hulk”.

Sooryavanshi’s legend rocketed last season when he clattered a 35-ball IPL century studded with 11 sixes. In the 12 months since, the Bihar-born striker has stacked big runs at every age group, earning a late-2025 India A debut in the ACC Rising Stars Asia Cup under Jitesh’s captaincy. The stint in Qatar’s dressing room, packed with players on the cusp of national selection, fast-tracked his education in elite environments.

Jitesh traces the boy’s explosive gene to raw, almost cartoonish strength. “It’s all natural power. His wrists are bigger than mine—my watch was tight on him,” he laughed, recalling their first meeting at the Royals academy in Talegaon. The friendship deepened on the Qatar tour, where Jitesh watched bowlers deliberately drag their lengths back, hoping to keep the ball away from Sooryavanshi’s hitting arc. “They’re scared. They bowl short so the ball goes anywhere but back at them,” Jitesh said, likening the spectacle to watching a left-handed Nicholas Pooran with a Hindi playlist.

With Sanju Samson no longer in the Royals set-up, Sooryavanshi is pencilled in as a permanent top-order fixture alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal and skipper Riyan Parag—two graduates of cricket’s sink-or-swim school who understand the glare that now follows the 15-year-old. IPL 2026 begins tomorrow night, and opponents have had a full year to blueprint slower-ball bouncers, wide yorkers and every variation designed to dethrone the Baby Hulk. How the birthday boy counters those schemes will decide whether the fear factor he has created translates into another season of headline-shredding carnage.