Rajasthan Royals' 15-year-old opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi broke Chris Gayle's 14-year-old record for the most sixes in a single IPL season during the IPL 2026 Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad in New Chandigarh on Wednesday.
Sooryavanshi surpassed Gayle's tally of 59 sixes, set during the 2012 IPL season, to become the holder of the record for the most sixes in a single IPL season. The record also makes him the batter with the most sixes in any single T20 tournament. Before Sooryavanshi, only two batters had hit 50 or more sixes in a T20 tournament. Gayle did it twice, hitting 59 sixes in IPL 2012 and 51 in IPL 2013. Andre Russell hit 52 in IPL 2019.
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Sooryavanshi entered the Eliminator with 53 sixes to his name in IPL 2026 and needed seven more to break the record. He hit a half-century off just 16 balls in the powerplay in what was a dominant display with the bat.
His strike rate of 232.27 this season is almost 13 per cent better than any other batter with 500 runs in a T20 tournament. He is also one of only three batters with 10 or more scores of 30-plus in IPL 2026.
Sooryavanshi struck 42 of his 53 pre-Eliminator sixes off fast bowlers, the most for any batter in an IPL season. Gayle and Russell each hit 40 sixes against pace in their respective record seasons.
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The Bihar teenager had publicly stated his ambition to break Gayle's records. In a conversation on Kevin Pietersen's YouTube channel, Sooryavanshi had declared he wanted to become the first batter to score a double century in T20 cricket, targeting Gayle's unbeaten 175 the highest individual score in IPL history.
