Sooryavanshi recently made his T20I debut for India at the age of 15.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has become the toast of the nation for his record-breaking exploits this year. The teenage sensation earned the Player-of-the-Tournament award at the start of the year, helping India clinch their record-extending sixth ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup title.
Sooryavanshi carried his stunning form into the IPL 2026. Playing for Rajasthan Royals (RR), he won the Orange Cap and was named the Most Valuable Player for scoring 776 runs in 16 innings at a staggering strike rate of 237.30, including one hundred, five half-centuries and a record 72 sixes in an IPL season.
As a result, the 15-year-old earned his maiden call-up to the senior Indian men's cricket team. While Sooryavanshi failed to make a mark (42 runs in three innings) in his debut T20I series against England, he delivered Player-of-the-Series performance (151 runs in three innings) in the subsequent tour of Zimbabwe.
As the young prodigy now shifting his attention towards the domestic red-ball season with Duleep Trophy, former India head coach Rahul Dravid believes striking the right balance between formats will be crucial.
Dravid called for patience with Sooryavanshi, stressing the need to develop his red-ball game and backing him to excel in Test cricket.
“I think you always have to find that balance. And I think it's a great thing that Vaibhav is getting the experience of playing some white-ball cricket through the IPL in India, but he's also having the time to go back and play red-ball cricket in the Indian domestic system and grow his red-ball career. All of us also want to see Test cricket survive, all of us want to see Test cricket grow, and we need players like him to be able to hopefully play all formats of the game,” Dravid told Cricinfo at an ETPL event in Dublin.
“The good thing is he's going to take some time, he's going to need some experience, he's going to get an opportunity to play a lot of red-ball cricket. He's not played as much red-ball cricket as probably white-ball cricket. He's only 15, and I think you've got to just give him some time and you've got to be patient with him. He's obviously been such a success straightaway, right, but he's going to go through his ups and downs, and I think people are going to have to be patient with him,” he added.
Sooryavanshi will serve East Zone as vice-captain in the Duleep Trophy 2026-27. He will get at least two consecutive red-ball matches if East Zone progress through the competition.
Dravid warned against expecting the teenager's unprecedented white-ball success to translate immediately into the longest format.
“I think he's going to have some success but he also might have periods where it probably doesn't work out well for him,” he said. “But let's all remember he's only 15 and he has a long way to go. So Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, by not playing in T20 competitions all over the world, is actually playing in the red-ball Indian domestic competition. He's growing, he's getting better at red-ball skills.”
“Hopefully, someday, if he does well and performs well like he has in white-ball cricket, he might become a red-ball player for India. And how exciting that would be for the world game as well,” Dravid remarked.