Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, on Sunday, met IPL‘s wunderkind Vaibhav Suryavanshi after the end of the Rajasthan Royals’ match against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens. Vaibhav incurred a second successive batting failure since his record-breaking show in Jaipur last week against the Gujarat Titans, as he was dismissed for just four runs in Rajasthan’s one-run loss.

In a video shared by the Royals on social media, which was later removed from their timeline, Ganguly met Sanju Samson and franchise head coach Rahul Dravid together, before catching up with Vaibhav, who is also a left-handed batter like the India legend.

Ganguly not only had a look at Vaibhav’s bat, according to a report in Sangbad Pratidin, which he reckoned was quite heavy, but also gave a pep talk to the 14-year-old, who managed scores of 0 and 4 since his 35-ball ton. “I have seen your game. Keep playing the way you play fearless cricket. There is no need to change the game,” he said as quoted by the Bengali publication.

Notably, last week, Vaibhav turned heads with his smashing show at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium last week, where he became the youngest-ever batter to score a T20 century. The 35-ball ton was also the quickest century by an Indian batter in the history of the IPL, and the second-fastest overall.

Rajasthan fall short in run chase again

The Royals have had a forgettable experience as a chasing side in the IPL 2025, having incurred a few too many near losses, which eventually saw them miss out on the chance to make the playoffs.

On Sunday, stand-in skipper Riyan Parag became the first batter in the IPL’s history to smash six sixes off successive deliveries he faced, en route to his 95 off 45 balls, which helped the visitors bounce back from 71-5 in the eighth over. However, Rajasthan could not prevent the narrow loss as then fell short by only a single in the chase of 207.

Rajasthan, currently eighth in the 10-team league, are out of playoff contention.