Vaibhav Sooryavanshi again showed glimpses of his supreme talent in the third T20I against England at Trent Bridge but lost his wicket for 13 runs, one fewer than what he scored on his international debut for India in Manchester. His Rajasthan Royals (RR) teammate Jofra Archer got him out on his fifth ball, with a brilliant bouncer which the left-hander couldn’t help but glove to Jos Buttler behind the wickets.
During IPL 2026, Archer was asked about what plans he would deploy against the 15-year-old prodigy, who was by far the best batter of the tournament. Archer jokingly said he’ll ‘tell after the IPL was over’.
It was pretty obvious what that plan was in this innings. Archer, from all his experience of facing Sooryavanshi in the nets, knew
that he struggles with high-pace deliveries on the leg-stump.
The first ball Archer bowled to him was a 144kph bouncer, which Sooryavanshi missed, all ends up, getting late on the pull shot. On the next ball, Archer kept it short but wider, and the left-hander got a big edge to fly over third man for a six.
The next two balls Sooryavanshi faced were from Josh Tongue, who didn’t follow the same plan. Tongue was almost as quick as Archer but bowled the first one full and straight, which was lofted over deep mid-wicket. The next was quite wide, which Sooryavanshi got away for a single.
Archer came up against him in the third over and hit the perfect leg-stump line with the bouncer. Sooryavanshi went for the pull but got late and gloved it behind.
India suffer all-mighty powerplay collapse
Before Sooryavanshi’s wicket, Tongue had already taken out Abhishek Sharma. Afterwards, he dismissed Ishan Kishan after his brief counterattack, while Archer returned to send back skipper Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel in the same over, reducing India to 52/5 inside five overs. The final over of the powerplay summed up the collapse, with Will Jacks conceding just two runs as India limped to 54/5 after six overs — the first time they had lost their first five wickets inside the powerplay in a T20I.
