Rajasthan Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara, who has watched Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s growth from close quarters throughout the IPL 2026 season, feels that Sooryavanshi possesses the temperament and cricketing intelligence to play on the international stage. Dominating the IPL 2026, he amassed a staggering 776 runs across 16 innings, maintaining an extraordinary strike rate of 237.30.

In consecutive high-pressure games, the young batter narrowly missed out on centuries. He scored a blistering 97 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator before following it up with another magnificent innings of 96 against Gujarat Titans in qualifier 2 on Friday. While the milestones eluded him, the quality of those knocks underlined his growing reputation as a big-match player. Despite Vaibhav's brilliance, RR lost the match against GT in the qualifier, failing to make it to the final. 

"With everything Vaibhav's shown against some of the best bowlers in the world, I think he's more than ready to take on any challenge that you throw at him. I'm sure that he'll get that call-up very, very soon. He's batted with a lot of maturity; he has shouldered the responsibility of that opening partnership so well for us this season," Sangakkara said at the press conference.

What stood out most was his ability to assess conditions very well in the match against GT despite wickets continuing to fall at the other end. His 96 from 47 deliveries took the side to a total of 214. Sangakkara praised vaibhav's composure and clarity of thought, noting that his decision-making under pressure has been incredible throughout the season.

"Yeah, I think we've got a good plan around him. We don't clutter his mind too much. He comes to all our team meetings, he contributes, he listens, and he does a lot of homework. He practises well, and he reads bowlers well; he watches their videos and prepares himself really well. So we don't want to put any unnecessary thoughts into his head. I think a clear mind, batting with that courage is exactly what we want to see of him."