Sehwag, Bumrah Mentioned In Stunning Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Prediction By Ex-India Spinner | EXCLUSIVE

Former India left-arm spinner Maninder Singh believes Vaibhav Sooryavanshi may already possess something rarer than timing or technique: perspective. Speaking exclusively with Sports Now, Maninder made a bold prediction about the teenager many still see as a T20 curiosity. The 15-year-old is possibly the only cricketer in the world to have smashed the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood, to name a few, with utmost ease. The sheer fearlessness to greet some of the world’s best bowlers with a boundary off the very first ball, while the rest still try to play them out on most occasions, speaks volumes of his ability.

Why Sooryavanshi Can Do What Sehwag, Bumrah Did? Maninder believes that, while Sooryavanshi has taken the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) by storm, he has the ability and the talent to play all formats of the game. Drawing parallels with two of India's finest cricketers, Virender Sehwag, possibly the best Indian opener after the great Sunil Gavaskar, and Jasprit Bumrah, who is possibly one of the greatest all-formats bowlers of all time, both initially thought to be primarily white-ball cricketers, before making a name for themselves in the red-ball format, proving their critics wrong in ways hardly anybody ever imagined. "I think he is somebody who should be playing all the formats.

Whenever it happens. Because I remember when Virender Sehwag came into the scene, everybody said he was only a white-ball cricketer. When Bumrah came into the scene, everybody said that he would only play one-day cricket and T20 cricket.

But look what they have done in Test match cricket. And Virender Sehwag always said this. I remember in one of his interviews, he said that he used to think, and he was made to believe that he was a white-ball cricketer," Maninder recalled. Bumrah currently sits in second place in the all-time list among bowlers with the best strike-rate (minimum 200 wickets), only behind South Africa speedster Kagiso Rabada, while Sehwag went on to play 104 Test matches for India, scoring 8586 runs at an average of 49.34, and a staggering strike rate of 82.23.

He ended his Test career with most runs by an Indian opener after Gavaskar. "In Test match cricket, three slips, a gully, a short leg. There are five fielders there. The whole field is open for you.

So you can carry on playing your game and carry on scoring runs. And look what he did. So that was Virender Sehwag's mindset. These kinds of things, these boys these days, they know a lot.

And I am sure they must be talking to their seniors, and they must be getting that advice," he further emphasised on his point. The Kumar Sangakkara Influence At Rajasthan Royals At Rajasthan Royals, Sooryavanshi sits inside an ecosystem that includes figures like Kumar Sangakkara — mentors who understand pressure, expectation, and reinvention. Those conversations, Maninder believes, matter. "And since he is playing for the Rajasthan Royals, Sangakkara is there, who has done so well at the international level.

I am sure he must be giving him some tips on how to handle things better," he added. While a lot of former cricketers are apprehensive about fast-tracking the youngster into international cricket, and to be fair to them, there are enough cricketers India has produced over the years who didn't quite live up to the expectations. When citing the example of one such cricketer who lost his way, Maninder said, "I think Prithvi Shaw, when he came into the scene, a lot of people thought that he was going to be the next super kid.

But he just lost his way. And I don't think he got a lot of help either. And even if he did get help, he didn't handle things better for himself. So this happens.

But when we are talking about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, I think he has got a very good head on his shoulders. He knows what he is aiming for." But if Maninder is right, the bigger question may already be changing. Not whether Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is ready for every format.

But whether Indian cricket is ready to stop putting limits on him.