The beauty of the Indian Premier League will always be its ability to help unlikely individuals cross paths, diversifying cricket and growing the sport with every passing year.
Even within the context of Indian cricket, it offers the opportunity to the stars of tomorrow to rub shoulders with the heroes of today – and for Rajasthan Royals, that is exactly what is on offer, as Ravindra Jadeja marks his return to the Sawai Mansingh Stadium and shares the dressing room with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
The hard-hitting left-handed 15-year-old is one to watch in IPL 2026, expected to open the batting alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal for RR. With the players heading to training camps and preparing with just over a week to go for the IPL, first pictures were shared from the RR training camp – with Sooryavanshi facing batting practice, Ravindra Jadeja bowling at him.
In a piece of priceless experience, Sooryavanshi faced open practice from a player with over 600 international wickets to his name. Not only did Jadeja play party to the young man, but also showed that there were seeds of a great bond and teammate relationship being formed.
In a short clip shared by the RR social media channels, Jadeja can be seen bowling and sharing smiles and laughs with Sooryavanshi, even giggling after the southpaw launched a big hit off his bowling. On one instance, Jadeja fired a flat ball wide of off-stump, and Sooryavanshi was adamant it was a wide, saying “Paaji, bahaar hai (it’s outside).”
Can Jadeja-Sooryavanshi recreate 2008 RR success?
The fun battle saw plenty of big hitting but joy for Jadeja as well, as on one particular delivery he ran off celebrating after inducing a mishit from the young man.
Sooryavanshi left his mark on the IPL with a record-breaking, scintillating century in the previous edition, and has set the Under-19 and A-level tours on fire since the year since – with Jadeja’s expertise, as a player who has seen it all on this stage, Sooryavanshi could be one of the most impressive batters in this year’s tournament.
Jadeja joined RR after being traded away from Chennai Super Kings, where he had become part of the furniture. But Jadeja knows a thing or two about being a young superstar in the RR environment, having started off under Shane Warne’s wing in the 2008 victorious tournament. With RR still hunting for their next success, Jadeja might want to recreate that relationship, and see a little bit of Sooryavanshi in himself.