'Even if he was 25, we'd be talking about him' - Trevor Penney on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

The last time he came up against Mumbai Indians, he cracked a 14-ball 39, which included two authoritative sixes against Jasprit Bumrah, in a rain-shortened encounter. Arguably the best batter of the tournament, claims for Sooryavanshi's escalation to the national team has gathered momentum. In the midst of this rollicking season, Sooryavanshi has already bagged himself a spot in the India A side for the triseries in Sri Lanka in June.

"I've never seen a 15-year-old bat like that," Penney confessed. "Even if he was 25, I think we'd be talking about him. I think age hasn't come into it. He goes from ball one and he's got all the shots. I think this year compared to last - I did watch on TV -- he might have matured a bit on what shots he can play, where the bowlers think there's a weakness. He's adapting to that and then playing accordingly. He's definitely adapting to how bowlers think they can bowl with him. Suddenly once he works that out, then they have to come back to his strength and then he dominates again.

"With the international stuff, that's the trick question, everybody thinks he's good enough. Look at the under-19 50-over World Cup, he got 175. So he plays all formats. But the way he plays... there have been attacking batsmen in Test cricket before as well. Sehwag, for instance, he just took it down from ball one as well. So I think that's the trick. If you want to get him in as a 15-year-old, or you just give him a few more seasons of playing like this and maturing a little bit, off the field, especially, before you throw him in."

For now though, Sooryavanshi will be critical to Rajasthan Royals's fate in their upcoming game against Mumbai Indians on Sunday. A victory will secure them a place in the playoffs in what has been a tightly-contested season, with four teams in contention for that one spot heading into the final day of the league stage.

Penney is certain that an unburdened MI would look to end their campaign on a high. "Mumbai, obviously, a World XI. They've got such a good team as well. So you can never count them out. And as you say, they've got nothing to lose. So they could come out playing like millionaires, which most of them are already. So it's just exciting. It's nice to be in this position where we're one point clear. So if we win, it's all in our hands. And we can go ahead and go to the qualifiers, get up to Chandigarh."

Royals' IPL 2026 campaign had started on a high with the Riyan Parag-led side winning their first four games. Since then, they have not been able to stitch two victories together. However, Penney denies there being an issue with how the team played, citing minor errors on the field.

"Obviously, we started like a train, didn't we? Won our first four. Then we had a bit of a middle period where we didn't play as well as we would like. We lost some close games, dropped some catchers, which cost us games. But we felt that we still played some really good cricket in all those games we lost. This last game gave us a lot of confidence.

"That win, obviously our top three, top four getting runs. We see in the tournament now, everyone is actually winning games with their top three, top four. If you win the power play, blah, blah, blah, you can go on and win the game from there. So I think we've really got that. We've got a really good top order. So we're really confident in going all the way. There's no doubt about that, especially if we get a few of these niggles back and we can get to our full strength side. And we all know about the playoffs. It's a different beast as well. So it's just this one game tomorrow."

Much, as Penney mentions, rests on Royals' top-three to give them an upperhand in the contest. While Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has grabbed all the headlines, Yashasvi Jaiswal has blown hot-and-cold this season. Having amassed 1619 runs across the last three seasons, at a strike rate of 160.13, he has managed only 370 runs at 159.48 this year. However, Penney is confident that Jaiswal will cover up in the last phase of the tournament.

"He sometimes would have 600 runs by now. And he's just off that. It's not far. If we win this game and go to the finals, he's still going to get 600-700 runs. I'm sure of that. He's actually in the last game, I thought he played one of his best innings. Pure cricket. Lovely cricket shots. And I think once he plays like that, then we'll start seeing the Jaiswal. And I know he loves playing here in Mumbai. So I think, yeah, we're not too fussed because we've got a chance for the playoffs. And now's the time to play well.

"If we can win this game, have two wins going into the playoff with all the batsmen starting to play well, I think that's exactly where we'll be. But no fuss. I mean, batsmen, T20 cricket can be tough. You can be playing well and still have a bit of a bad run. But then you can come back, especially if we have 3 or 4 games left for us."

"I've read some of those articles. It's quite weird because it's a big tournament. Everybody knows IPL is the thing to come to as well. So if he misses one game for England, then so be it for him. I think that's how he's thinking."

"But yeah, it doesn't bother him, I don't think. I think maybe he'd be a bit annoyed, but I can't answer for him for that. But he's just getting on as normal. He's hardly even mentioned it. Guys haven't even spoken about it. But it is what it is. You either come and choose here and annoy people there. Or you leave here early and then you're in trouble of never coming back to the IPL again."

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