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Legendary Australian batter Greg Chappell has heaped massive praise on 15-year-old cricketer Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. The southpaw scored 776 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 237.31 and also won the Orange Cap in the Indian Premier League 2026. His numbers were impressive, and there was hardly any bowler who dominated the young cricketer. He won several matches for the Rajasthan Royals in the 19th season, hitting 72 sixes and 64 fours.

He entered the record books and set up new benchmarks that led to his selection for the tours of Ireland, England and the Asian Games. He batted well against the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who are genuine wicket-takers and match-winners.

Chappell has been impressed with the way the young prodigy has batted so far. However, he mentioned that Sooryavanshi’s rise highlights a big issue in modern cricket to the bowlers.

“If a kid, who hasn’t completed his physical development, can humiliate elite international bowlers, it exposes an illness in the sport,”  Chappell wrote in a column for ESPNcricinfo.

According to Chappell, Vaibhav’s rise shows how the game has shifted in favour of the batters. “Sooryavanshi is the canary in the coal mine, showing us that modern cricket could lead to the extinction of the bowlers. The new bats, shortened boundaries, and flat pitches have swung the game in favour of the batters,” he explained.

“The rules and regulations threaten to reduce T20 cricket to a repetitive loop of boundaries that will impact the interest of the fans.  The entertainment value of any sport relies fundamentally on jeopardy, and when that jeopardy is stripped away, the spectacle quickly loses its gloss.”

According to Chappell, the batters don’t need to work hard for their runs these days as sex-hitting has become easier, and there is no need to construct an innings.

“By removing any kind of help for the bowlers, the decision-makers have drafted rules in favour of six hitters, and now there is no need for tactical calculations. T20 cricket is all about big shots, and it is the face of cricket. The batters don’t want to run between the wickets, and the strategic discussions between captain, bowler and batter have been replaced by hitting.”

To restore a better balance between bat and ball, he suggested several changes. He urged the ICC to limit the number of wickets a team can lose in a T20 match to six, a move that would force teams to rethink their attacking approach.

He proposed to leave a 3mm of live grass on all the pitches in T20 format while leaving one end completely dry, bare and dusty to help fast bowlers and spinners.