Jos Buttler lavished praise on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and spoke about his meeting with the 15-year-old ahead of the Gujarat Titans (GT) clash against his former side, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday (April 4) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Sooryavanshi made a big impact on the game with a quick-fire innings of 31 runs off 18 balls that gave the Royals a quick start alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal to help the Riyan Parag-led team register a tense six-run victory.
On the eve of the game, the Royals’ social media account posted a video on social media showing Buttler meeting Sooryavanshi alongside a member of RR’s coaching staff. The GT wicketkeeper-batter was full of praise for the youngster and called him the best player he had ever seen. He also pointed out that he is looking forward to seeing what kind of player he develops into as he ages.
Buttler talked about the interaction and revealed he was more starstruck meeting the youngster instead of the other way round.
“He came over to me saying, ‘Vaibhav would love to say hello and meet you.’ And I actually think I was probably more starstruck meeting him than he was me. So that was a cool interaction. I just couldn’t get over him looking at me and thinking, You’re 15 years old, and we’re playing in the IPL, me at 35 and all these different superstars around the tournament. And a 15-year-old guy taking the tournament by storm as well. It’s not like he’s just making up numbers.
” He’s playing great, and he got 30 or 40-odd against us the other day. But it was cool just to meet him and have a chat to him, just sort of saying how much I enjoyed watching him play. I said, “I don’t get big-headed, but he must be the best player I’ve ever seen.” If you’re 15 doing what you’re doing now, what are you going to be doing at 18 or 21? That kind of thing. So it was a nice interaction,” said Buttler in an interaction with Stuart Broad on the ‘For The Love Of Cricket’ Podcast
has stepped into Buttler’s shoes, as the Englishman was opening for the franchise from 2018 till 2024. He has taken up the role since coming into the playing XI mid-way in the 2025 season.