Virat Kohli, 37, and Sooryavanshi, 15, set to take IPL playoff spotlight

NEW DELHI: Veteran batting great Virat Kohli and 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will be in the spotlight as the T20 Indian Premier League spans the generations in the playoffs beginning on Tuesday.

There are 22 years between the 37-year-old Kohli, who helped power defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru to the top of the regular season standings, and teenage prodigy Sooryavanshi whose batting fireworks have been the talk of the IPL season.

Kohli and Bengaluru will meet Gujarat Titans in the first “qualifying” play-off in Dharamsala on Tuesday with the winner going straight into Sunday’s final in Ahmedabad.

Sooryavanshi and Rajasthan Royals sealed the final play-off berth only on Sunday and will meet Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday in Chandigarh, where the losers will go home.

The winner will face the loser of Tuesday’s qualifying playoff in the final eliminator on Friday in Chandigarh.

“We don’t pick age, we pick ability,” Rajasthan head coach Kumar Sangakkara said, referring to the 15-year-old rising star.

“All guys, young and old, have done well to drag us to qualification.”

England fast bowler Jofra Archer has also been instrumental in Rajasthan’s campaign, scoring 32 runs and taking 3-17 in the win that saw them into the last four.

Kohli, who has stepped away from Test cricket and T20 internationals, is chasing a second straight IPL title with Bengaluru after waiting 18 seasons to lift his first in 2025.

“Even after all these years, it is the love for the game. I just love hitting the ball in the middle of the bat. That joy is still there,” said Kohli, who is ninth on the IPL batting chart with 557 runs and a top score of 105 not out.

Sooryavanshi is fifth on 583 runs with and a best of 103 off 37 balls.

Rajasthan’s opponents on Wednesday will be Sunrisers Hyderabad, who boast a formidable batting line-up featuring openers Travis Head of Australia, Abhishek Sharma and South African Heinrich Klaasen, who has hammered 606 runs with six half-centuries.

The batting chart is topped by Gujarat Titans openers Sai Sudharsan (638 runs) and Shubman Gill (616).

Gujarat won the IPL in their debut season in 2022 and if they reach the final again will play the showpiece in their home 130,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

The 10-team league has staged 70 matches over seven intense weeks of action but has seen a drop in its television audience, with BARC India and TAM Sports reporting average viewership down 26 percent.

But analysts have attributed the TV decline to a shift toward streaming on digital platforms rather than waning interest across cricket-obsessed India.