Rajasthan Royals, the first-ever champions of the IPL, have been awaiting their second title in the IPL for all these seasons. Under a new skipper, the Royals and their youngest player, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, have declared themselves the champions of IPL 2026.
The Rajasthan Royals have managed to win only one IPL, which was back in 2008, the inaugural season of the IPL. Ever since then, they have played in just one of the other IPL finals, in 2022, when the Sanju Samson-led side was defeated by the Gujarat Titans.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the youngster, was included in the Rajasthan Royals playing XI last time. He went on to be the youngest ever cricketer, aged 13, who was part of the RR playing XI in the IPL. He then went on to be the youngest centurion in the IPL.
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Vaibhav Sooryavanshi declares Rajasthan Royals as the champions of IPL 2026
Ahead of the start of IPL 2026, the Rajasthan Royals management and their youngest cricketer, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, have declared themselves champions of the upcoming season of the IPL.
In a promotional video ahead of the IPL 2026, the Royals team showed Vaibhav Sooryavanshi imitating Ranveer Singh’s famous scene from the Bollywood movie Dhurandhar, where he writes down his targets in a secret diary.
Sooryavanshi has been seen striking off his accomplished targets, like an IPL century and the U19 World Cup, while he writes the next target as the IPL trophy. Suryavanshi’s form has been sublime across all formats of white-ball cricket.
𝐕𝐚𝐢𝐛𝐡𝐚𝐯 𝐒𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐲𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐏𝐋 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 🔥💗 pic.twitter.com/Eh2ofR9N3L
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) March 16, 2026
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s dream debut in IPL 2025
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi did not get his chance in the first half of the tournament for the Rajasthan Royals. The Rahul Dravid-led side wonderfully scouted the young cricketer from Bihar as a supreme talent who will shape the future of the Rajasthan Royals and Indian cricket.
Sooryavanshi played 7 games for the Royals and amassed 252 runs for them with a strike rate of over 200. He averaged 36 in the tournament and scored a century in his debut season. As a 13-year-old cricketer, he is the youngest to have scored a hundred.
He scored a half-century and a century, which also became the second-fastest century in the IPL off just 35-balls against the Gujarat Titans.
Sooryavanshi’s terrific run for India in the U19 Asia Cup and World Cup
The 14-year-old cricketer became the youngest cricketer to feature in the ICC U19 World Cup, as he was part of the 2026 ICC Men’s U19 World Cup. The opening batter from India scored 439 runs across 7 innings for India at an average of 62.71.
What made him different from others was the sublime strike rate of 169.50. He finished as the second-highest run-getter in the tournament and led India to another U19 World Cup triumph.
His record-breaking innings came in the final, when he scored 175 runs off just 80 balls in the final of the competition. He also broke the record for most sixes in the single edition of the Under-19 World Cup.
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