'He's my new favourite player' - Cummins on Sooryavanshi

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's 36-ball hundred, the third-fastest ever in IPL, was not enough to take Rajasthan Royals over the line, but it left even the opposition captain deeply impressed with what the 15-year-old is already capable of.

"I think he's my new favourite player," SRH skipper Pat Cummins said of Sooryavanshi. "He hits the ball so hard, it's great to watch, it's good fun.

"You've got to be right on the money as a bowler, because if you're not, it's going a long way. So he's impressive. Yeah, he's had a great start to his career and yeah, I love the way he plays, takes the game on."

The first ball Cummins bowled to Sooryavanshi disappeared for six, setting the tone for another fearless innings from the teenager, who has now looked increasingly comfortable against some of the best bowlers in the competition, including Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen, Josh Hazlewood and Arshdeep Singh.

Playing his first game of the season after returning from rehab, Cummins also weighed in on the growing debate around the volume of runs being scored in the IPL lately. On Saturday alone, the two matches produced 986 runs.

"Look, maybe," Cummins said of whether the tournament needed better bat-ball balance. "I think it's just the way it is. The wickets might be flat, but it's only 20 overs, you know, so it's not a Test match where it's flat and they've had a bat for five days, so I'm okay with that. It's a maximum of four overs. Yeah, it's fine. It is what it is.

"We set up our team, obviously, to try and go big on our batting, and as bowlers it's up to us to try and minimise the runs. The scores look a little bit different to maybe a few years ago, but the concept's still the same. Yeah, I don't mind it."

Asked specifically about bowling to long batting line-ups on flat pitches with short boundaries, Cummins said he viewed it more as a challenge than a frustration.

"It's fine, it's a good challenge," Cummins said. "You know, you can have a bad couple of overs, but you feel like if you come back and bowl a really good death over, then that can be match winning. So I actually think in some ways it takes the pressure off us bowlers, knowing that our batting line-up can chase whatever, maybe the scores are going to be big.

"You feel like all four overs are super important, and you know, one wicket, one really good over can actually be as important as a good spell would be in a lower scoring game.

"It's fine. It's the same for both teams. I think you still need five really good bowlers. A lot of the time you're still looking for an all-rounder. It means you can play an extra spinner or whatever, so I like it. I think you see more variety."