"Cricket teaches us this repeatedly" - Aakash Chopra on Vaibhav Suryavanshi's dismissal for a duck in RR's IPL 2025 loss vs MI

Former India player Aakash Chopra has noted that Vaibhav Suryavanshi's dismissal for a duck in the Rajasthan Royals' (RR) IPL 2025 clash against the Mumbai Indians (MI) is a life lesson repeatedly taught by cricket. He highlighted that a person who could be flying one day might be brought to earth the very next day.

MI set RR a 218-run target in Match 50 of IPL 2025 in Jaipur on Thursday, May 1. Suryavanshi was dismissed for a two-ball duck in the chase as the hosts were bundled out for 117, losing the game by 100 runs.

Reflecting on RR's chase in a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra', the former India opener pointed out that Suryavanshi's failure shows the vagaries of life.

"Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored a century in the last match and didn't open his account in this match. That's life, and cricket teaches us this repeatedly. You will be at the top one day and on the ground on another day. You will be a hero one day and literally zero the next day. It's going to be a learning curve," he said (4:30).

Chopra added that the RR opener shouldn't be criticized, highlighting that the 14-year-old has achieved what no one else has done.

"Runs will and will not be scored. He will get a lot of attention, won't get it someday, and might even be criticized. This is the hard curve. The kid has now sat on the roller coaster. He was disappointed after getting out. Give him some time because many people get out for zero, but what he did, no one has done that in this tournament's 18-year history and worldwide in men's T20 cricket," he elaborated.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi smashed a 35-ball century in RR's IPL 2025 clash against the Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 28. It was the fastest hundred by an Indian in IPL history, and he also became the youngest to score a century in men's T20s.

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"It's fine if Vaibhav gets out for zero, but what are the others doing?" - Aakash Chopra questions RR's batting after IPL 2025 loss vs MI

None of the RR batters played a substantial knock in their IPL 2025 clash against MI. [P/C: iplt20.com]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra questioned the other Rajasthan Royals batters for their indifferent performances in IPL 2025.

"It's fine if Vaibhav gets out for zero, but what are the others doing? They invested so much in batting, but what is the batting doing, whether it's Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel or Shimron Hetmyer? If you leave aside Nitish Rana, all of them are their retained players," he said (5:15).

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that RR have been found wanting this season, with their auction strategy not yielding the desired results.

"All their punts have failed, and that's why this team is out. They had a lot of Indian batting, and they tried to assemble an overseas bowling lineup. They were playing two overseas spinners. There is no doubt that Rajasthan have played ordinary cricket," Chopra observed.

Jofra Archer (30 off 27) was the only RR player to score more than 20 runs against MI. The loss in Thursday's game meant that the inaugural IPL champions became the second team, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) being the first, to be knocked out of playoff contention.