Kumble backs Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to break Chris Gayle's 59-six IPL record
Anil Kumble has put his name on a prediction that has been forming around the cricket world for a fortnight: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will break Chris Gayle's record for the most sixes in a single IPL season. The 15-year-old sits on 53 sixes with at least one league game and the playoffs left for Rajasthan Royals to play.
Gayle hit 59 in 2012. Only Andre Russell, with 52 for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2019, has gone past 50 in the years since. Sooryavanshi is six away from the lot.
Kumble's call
"He has already hit 53 sixes this IPL season. Chris Gayle holds the record for most sixes in a season with 59," Kumble said. "RR have one more league game and then the playoffs. If they win, he will get more chances. I can see Vaibhav Sooryavanshi breaking Gayle's record and making history."
Kumble does not throw public predictions around. The fact that he chose to put a number on it tells you how comfortable he has become with what Sooryavanshi is doing.
Where the chase stands
Gayle's 59 came for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2012. He hit 51 the following year. Russell got to 52 in 2019. That is the whole list of seasons above 50 before this one. Sooryavanshi crossed 50 against Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday, hammering ten sixes in a 38-ball 93 that took Rajasthan past LSG's 220 and into fourth place. The Indian record fell in the same innings.
RR have one league game left and are still fighting for the fourth playoff spot. That gives Sooryavanshi a minimum of two more innings to find six sixes. If Rajasthan go all the way to the final, he gets four.
The season in numbers
Sooryavanshi sits on 579 runs and the Orange Cap, sixteen ahead of Mitchell Marsh, who had briefly grabbed top spot earlier that same night with a 57-ball 96 of his own. The 37-ball 103 against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 25 still sits as the third-fastest century in IPL history. Twelve sixes in that knock alone.
He is the youngest player ever to hold the Orange Cap and the youngest to clear 500 runs in an IPL season. Now he is the first Indian to clear 50 sixes in one. He has spent two months hitting the ball harder than anyone else in the league, and the only number left between him and the IPL's tallest single-season record is six.
Related Tags:
Cricket Updates
