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Vaibhav Sooryavanshi demeaned by Matthew Hayden amid IPL 2026

Sanjeev Kumar | May 10, 2026 7:22 PM CST

Gujarat Titans head coach Matthew Hayden has claimed that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been impressive with the bat; however, he went on to back his own batters over the RR youngster, praising their remarkable consistency in IPL 2026. The Gujarat Titans changed their fortunes after a poor start to the season. Their first win came against the Delhi Capitals in a one-run victory, and the Titans haven't looked back since then. The last defeat was a home match defeat to the Mumbai Indians, and since then, the Shubman Gill-led side has had a four-match winning streak.

The Gujarat Titans have now entered the top two with the last win registered against the Rajasthan Royals. They avenged their loss from the second match of this season, where the Royals had defeated them by a 6-run margin.

Matthew Hayden notes down the flaws in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi threatened the Gujarat Titans during the mammoth chase of 230 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. This is one of the grounds where Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has amassed two hundreds in the two editions of the IPL he has starred in. Matthew Hayden, the Australian legend and the Gujarat Titans batting coach, revealed that he is mighty impressed with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's performance, but also highlighted the flaws in the youngster's gameplay.

“Well, tonight was a good example, right, of an exciting young talent in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. He batted, got 30 runs at a strike rate of 300. But when you're chasing 220 odd, you need to bat longer and deeper," said the Australian legend.

GT batting coach praises their top 3, citing their remarkable consistency

However, the Gujarat Titans' batting coach backed his own batters. The GT top 3 contributed significantly with the bat this season, having scored almost 70% of GT's net runs this season. Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill are already on the Orange Cap leaderboard with 440 and 462 runs, respectively. "So the advantage that we have is that we get players, like the top three that you mentioned, who are striking at 150," Hayden told reporters in the post-match press conference," claimed the GT head coach Matthew Hayden. “Let me tell you as a batter, that is really hard, and they're doing it for a long period of time; they're constantly getting into the back half of the game, not just batting inside the power play. They're going right through with their fitness and their ability to be able to really play Test match-type cricket, and ODI cricket in particular,” he added.

Matthew Hayden was impressed by the change in approach from the GT batters

Speaking of the GT batters' latest approach in the match, he highlighted how they have scored runs consistently while batting at strike rates of 160.41, 151.96, and 157.70 for Gill, Buttler, and Sudharsan, respectively. However, in this match, the way these batters accelerated their innings and changed their approach against an X-factor-led side, the Rajasthan Royals. "So, I love the fact that we're going about constructing in innings. Tonight, where we're setting a target, which is a different challenge for us, we've had a number of totals in that sort of 160 range. "Which I would back our batting to get through any day of the week, so it was nice tonight to have that bit of a challenge against an X-factor team like Rajasthan Royals, and to come out on top was really important for us," Hayden added.