Kamal Ghorui
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi are turning into one of the most destructive and fastest-scoring opening pairs in the IPL. Their explosive opening stands for the Rajasthan Royals have already lit up IPL 2026.The duo have been in sensational touch this season and have fired on all cylinders in the Royals’ three wins in as many games.In the first game against Chennai Super Kings in Guwahati, the duo put on 75 runs together in 38 balls for the opening stand to make short work of a comfortable chase.Against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad, the duo was on the prowl again and smashed 70 off 38 balls in their partnership – one which proved pivotal to what was eventually a narrow six-run win.Heavy rain delayed the start of the match against Mumbai Indians. When play finally began at 10.10pm, RR’s openers put MI under pressure straight away.Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi ransacked 80 runs in five overs. Sooryavanshi was eventually dismissed for 39 off 14, but Jaiswal rampaged through the 11-over innings, scoring an unbeaten 77 off 32 to power RR to 150 for 3.In the chase, MI lost three wickets inside the powerplay, which was reduced to 3.2 overs, and were eventually restricted to 123 for 9. A solid partnership from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi laid the foundation for the Rajasthan Royals’ 27-run win over the Mumbai Indians.
Brothers of destruction
It was not the first time that Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi provided the Royals with a blitzkrieg opening partnership. In fact, when we apply at least a 10-innings filter, only Sunil Narine and Phil Salt have scored at a faster rate than Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi among opening pairs in IPL history.Narine and Salt opened for KKR in IPL 2024, and across 12 innings, they scored at 12.46 runs per over. While Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi are just slightly behind, with a destructive run-rate of 12.36 in 10 innings so far in IPL 2025 and 2026.To put things in perspective, the opening pair of SRH’s Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma which is often considered the most-destructive, is below Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi in order. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s relentless duo, affectionately dubbed “Travishek” by the Orange Army, has scored at 12.29 runs per over in 28 innings.At number 4 is the opening pair of Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn (2017-19), with a run-rate of 10.6 in 25 innings; followed by RCB’s Virat Kohli and Phil Salt with a run rate of 10.24 in 15 innings.Sooryavanshi has played 10 matches so far in the IPL, and has a scary strike rate of 218.71.In 70 matches, Yashasvi Jaiswal has a strike rate of 153.58 in the IPL.
