- Pat Cummins prepares multiple bowling plans for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
- SRH captain admits Vaibhav can change matches within overs.
- SRH defeated Rajasthan Royals twice this IPL season.
Prior to the IPL 2026 Eliminator match against Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins acknowledged that his team has many bowling strategies ready for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
According to Cummins, bowling attacks are forced to have backup plans that go beyond their typical strengths because of guys like Vaibhav, who can win games in a matter of overs. After SRH defeated Rajasthan Royals in the league stage earlier this season, the two teams will now face off in the Eliminator at Mullanpur.
Cummins discussed Vaibhav’s spectacular century against SRH in Jaipur and how Hyderabad’s bowlers are now especially training for the 15-year-old in an interview with JioStar prior to the elimination match.
“It’s always a balance of, as a bowler, understanding what you do well and how you’re going to bowl to your strengths. But when there are probably one or two players in every lineup who can take the game away from the opposition, you do spend a little bit longer working on a Plan B or Plan C.
“So, yeah, we’ll plan for him. Even though he got a hundred against us last time, I thought there were times when we actually bowled quite well to him and kept him quiet. At other times, he got away from us. So, we’ll learn from that,” he said.
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Vaibhav’s fearless batting puts SRH bowlers on alert
Throughout this season, Vaibhav has demonstrated that reputation does not matter to him. With the same aggressive determination, the youngster has targeted Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Jasprit Bumrah, frequently snatching games away during the powerplay.
One of the main storylines of IPL 2026 has been Vaibhav’s ascent this season. Despite just being 15 years old, the Rajasthan Royals batter has become one of the tournament’s most formidable powerplay batters by smashing 583 runs in 14 innings with a strike rate of 232. However, the main strategy of the SRH team will be around Vaibhav to get his wicket in the game.
Rajasthan Royals will enter the knockout stage with a clear psychological advantage over Sunrisers Hyderabad. Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain combined for eight wickets in the first match in Hyderabad, which ended in a 57-run SRH victory. As the two sides prepare for their biggest match of the season, Cummins’ squad now has tactical knowledge thanks to that experience.
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SRH plan to stop Vaibhav after Jaipur century carnage
Cummins said that SRH would enter the Eliminator with confidence, having previously defeated Rajasthan twice this season.
“You’re obviously starting from scratch again, but you do take learnings from previous games. We’ve played them twice. We’ve had a good look at a lot of their players. A lot of our guys can look back at those games where they’ve had success and lean on that heading into the finals. So, it’s always nice coming up against a team that you’ve had some success against,” Cummins said.
Vaibhav reached his century in just 36 deliveries after smashing an incredible 103 off just 37 balls against SRH earlier this season in Jaipur. This is the second-fastest IPL century by an Indian, after Abhishek Sharma.
The teenage player even bravely confronted Cummins during that innings, hitting eight runs including a first-ball six off the four balls he saw from the Australian fast. A key part of SRH’s bowling strategy will be to not let Vaibhav dictate momentum in the early stages.
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