NEW DELHI: Aditya Thakur, 20, is a budding cricketer. He is currently travelling between cities to improve his batting so he can make it into the Bihar U-23 side for the 2026-27 domestic season. But whenever the Rajasthan Royals play, he makes sure to watch the game because his younger brother, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, plays for the franchise.Aditya hails from Ramapur Maheshpur, a village next to Sooryavanshi’s village, Tajpur, in Samastipur. He has been Sooryavanshi’s side-arm thrower for the past five years. He is not surprised by the way the teenager is batting: with clarity and intent from ball one.
“I am not surprised at all,” Aditya, who is currently training in Jaipur, told TimesofIndia.com.After taking on Mumbai Indians’ Jasprit Bumrah a few days ago, Sooryavanshi tore apart Royal Challengers Bengaluru seamers Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as well on Friday evening. He does not bother with reputations or resumes.“Every time he picks up the bat, it is like Diwali. The shots he plays do not surprise me. I have worked with him for the past five years, and this is just the beginning,” he said.When asked if it is like Diwali in Tajpur every time he walks out to bat, Thakur replied, “Pathaake footte hi rehte hain (It feels like firecrackers keep bursting all the time).”Sooryavanshi smashed Bumrah for two sixes in his last match, and on Friday evening, in Guwahati, he went after Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar. He teed off with a boundary off Bhuvneshwar’s inswinging yorker.
Rajasthan Royals batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2026. (Image: ANI)
“His back-lift is just incredible. When you pick up the bat, it usually does not go past your right shoulder. His bat not only passes his right shoulder, it goes past his head, which is absolutely rare. In fact, if you bowl him a straight yorker at 150, technically he should miss it because bringing the bat from in front of your head and then going all the way back and coming down again is very tough. But he does it naturally,” Zubin Bharucha, Vaibhav’s mentor, had explained last year in a chat with this website.He saved the best for Hazlewood, greeting him with a deft touch towards square third man. He tonked the next ball over mid-on and completed a hat-trick of boundaries with an exquisite cover drive. But the cherry on the cake was the pull shot over deep square leg for a maximum. He looted 19 runs off Hazlewood’s over, and then, with back-to-back sixes off Bhuvneshwar, he completed his fifty in just 15 balls.
Every time he picks up the bat, it is like Diwali. The shots he plays do not surprise me
Aditya Thakur
“I think we could not have done much. The way he is hitting shots, he is not slogging. He is playing proper shots. For a 15-year-old, he is too mature. I think we should give him credit for the way he is batting. He is batting really well and deserves all the credit,” Bhuvneshwar told reporters after the match.Aditya shared an interesting story about how Sooryavanshi trains at home on a cement pitch.“He trains three hours every day in the morning and three hours in the evening. Last year, before the IPL, he got hit on his helmet and went down. His father (Sanjeev Sooryavanshi) who was watching from behind the nets, did not rush. I was scared and ran to him. He got up by himself and did not flinch. For safety purposes, we took him to Patna for an MRI. Everything was fine, and he asked the doctor, ‘Sir, kal se cricket khel sakte hain?’ (Can I play cricket from tomorrow?). He is a special boy,” said Aditya. At 15, while most are still learning the game, Sooryavanshi is already dictating terms to some of the best in the business. The fearless strokeplay, the clarity of thought. If this is only the beginning, Indian cricket may well be witnessing the rise of a once-in-a-generation talent.
