Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 'a slight liability in the field'? Former India batter flags RR
Sanjay Manjrekar expresses concern over Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's limited role as an Impact Player in IPL 2026. He argues that restricting the 15-year-old to just batting hinders his overall cricketing development, emphasizing the importance of fielding experience and pressure situations for a complete cricketer.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has emerged as one of the brightest young stars of IPL 2026, scoring an impressive 440 runs in just 11 innings at the age of 15. While his fearless batting has grabbed attention across the tournament, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes there is a growing concern around how the youngster is being utilised by the franchise. Sooryavanshi has largely been used as an Impact Player, coming in primarily as a batter and rarely taking the field.
Manjrekar feels this could hamper the youngster’s overall development as a cricketer, stressing that fielding is an equally important part of the game. “I’m increasingly feeling that the Impact Player rule should be reconsidered for this reason as well. Is this all we want to see from Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, just one side of his game?
A cricketer is someone who bats well and fields well too,” Manjrekar said on the Sportstar Insight Edge Podcast. He explained that earlier generations of players were judged on all aspects of their game, not just batting ability. “We respected players like Inzamam-ul-Haq for their batting, but we also saw their fielding and other aspects of their game.
That helped people properly assess a player. Right now, someone can come in, face a few balls, display their hitting ability, and then disappear without showing the other side of their cricket,” he added. Manjrekar further argued that young players should also experience pressure situations in the field, including dealing with mistakes and learning from them.