Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is yet to leave a mark in the red-ball format.
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.
While the young prodigy has taken the cricketing world by storm with his white-ball prowess, he is yet to leave a mark in the red-ball format. Sooryavanshi averages an abysmal 16.53 in first-class cricket after 9 matches and was dismissed for only 8 runs off 6 balls in the recent Duleep Trophy appearance for East Zone and North East Zone.
Amid his challenges in the longer format, former India head coach Rahul Dravid has wondered whether Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will be able to play two full seasons of red-ball domestic cricket, considering he has national assignments. And that might jeopardize his Test ambitions.
"With Vaibhav, you've got to be patient. He's only 15 years old, and from what I've seen of the kid, I have no doubt that, given the opportunity to practice and play domestic cricket and a couple of seasons of red-ball cricket, he will be able to hold his own in a Test match team. Whether he'll be able to break into the XI with the guys already performing, that's a different story and a tricky one," Dravid told JioHotstar.
"Whether he'll have the time to play two full seasons of domestic cricket because he'll be so busy playing for India in the white-ball format, I'm not sure about that. So skill-wise, I think there is no problem; whether he will be able to do it because of schedules might be a bit more tricky."
East Zone registered a massive innings and 210-run victory over North East Zone in the first Duleep Trophy quarterfinal at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 2 in Bengaluru. This result means Sooryavanshi will get another match to prove his mettle in red-ball cricket.
East Zone will next face Central Zone in the semi-final, slated to begin on August 30.