RR star Vaibhav Suryavanshi's fake social media account causes stir after responding to Sachin Tendulkar, X takes swift action

Vaibhav Suryavanshi's impressive IPL performance, where he became the youngest and fastest Indian to score an IPL century at 14, has brought him fame, recognition, and admiration. While much of this is genuine, some of it may not be. During Vaibhav's remarkable performance against the Gujarat Titans, a fake X profile pretending to be the Rajasthan Royals batter caused problems on social media.

A profile named Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, using the handle @VaibhavOfficia, quickly gained followers and engagement by using Vaibhav Suryavanshi's performance on Monday. The profile used Vaibhav's photo in an RR uniform as the display picture and a photo of him in India U19 whites as the cover photo.

The fake account cleverly reposted content from the official RR X, formerly Twitter, handle. However, it was a reply to a tweet from Sachin Tendulkar that truly caused a stir. Tendulkar had praised the young player's amazing performance, tweeting, "Vaibhav’s fearless approach, bat speed, picking the length early, and transferring the energy behind the ball was the recipe behind a fabulous innings. End result: 101 runs off 38 balls. Well played!!"

Vaibhav's fake profile replied to Tendulkar's praise by saying, "Thank you so much Sir. It’s been a dream to earn a compliment from someone I’ve admired. Grateful beyond words."

April 28, 2025

Fans believed the reply was from the real Suryavanshi and quickly engaged with the post. However, suspicions soon emerged. X investigated the account and identified three reasons to confirm it was fake.

Here are the three reason given by X, formerly Twitter, on identifying Vaibhav's fake account

1. Not followed by the Rajasthan Royals (they follow all their players).

2. Account handle using ‘Officia’, professional account tend to avoid such names.

3. All tweets and replies originated on 28th April, likely to farm engagement."

The tweet gained significant attention, with most X users believing it was genuine. After receiving 55,000 likes and over 4,000 reposts, X took action to stop the misinformation.

The account was suspended hours later, but the user created a new profile with the ID @Vaibhavsooryava using the same credentials. The reply to Tendulkar's tweet was gone, but the other posts remained.

However, it's likely that X will soon suspend this new profile as well.

Meanwhile, during the run-chase of 210 runs against Gujarat Titans on Monday, fans were treated to some insanely clean ball-striking from Vaibhav, who scored 101 in just 38 balls, with seven fours and 11 sixes. His runs came at a strike rate of 265.79.

Vaibhav reached his century in 35 balls, which is the second-fastest century in the history of the IPL, below Chris Gayle's 30-ball ton against now-defunct Pune Warriors India for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) back in 2013. Vaibhav is now also the fastest Indian to score a century in the IPL.

The left-hander, at the age of 14 years and 32 days, is the youngest player to score a century in T20 cricket history, surpassing Vijay Zol ,who was 18 years and 118 days old while scoring a century for Maharashtra against Mumbai in 2013.

During the IPL mega-auction last year, one of the biggest surprises that emerged was Suryavanshi becoming a Royal for Rs 1.1 crore. Born on March 27, 2011, in Bihar, Vaibhav is the youngest player on the list. He made his first-class debut for Bihar in January 2024 at just 12 years and 284 days old. Last year, he was part of India U19's match against Australia in Chennai, where he smashed a 58-ball century.