Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was named the vice-captain of East Zone team in Duleep Trophy.
The 15-year-old had recently made his India debut in England T20Is and won the Player of the Series award against Zimbabwe.
In the video shared on his Instagram, Sooryavanshi can be seen playing with the red ball, and he is also practicing leaving deliveries and defensive shots. He can be seen playing sweep shots to spinners, while working on tightening his defense.
“Preparation,” Sooryavanshi captioned the post.
Given his age and rapid ascent over the previous year, Sooryavanshi's promotion to the leadership group has garnered significant attention.
But rather than giving the adolescent immediate captaincy, East Zone selector Pravanjan Mullick stated that the assignment is meant to gradually train him for more responsibility.
“He has not been made the captain. He has only been made the vice-captain. The captain is Ishan Kishan. Besides, Ishan is a wicketkeeper, so he will be actively involved throughout the day. It is not as though Vaibhav will be captaining the team all day. As he grows, he is maturing day by day. Giving him more responsibility will help him mature even further,” Mullick told Cricbuzz.
Sooryavanshi has served as Bihar's vice-captain in first-class cricket and was part of India's leadership group during their Under-19 World Cup campaign.
“This is a great opportunity for him to take on the responsibility of being vice-captain in the Duleep Trophy. He wants to do well for the country, and we believe giving young players responsibility is important. Who knows? We are keeping our fingers crossed that one day he could even become India's captain. That is the thought behind giving him the vice-captaincy,” Mullick had said.
The Duleep Trophy will provide Sooryavanshi with an opportunity to test his batting in the longer format, with national selectors set to keep a close eye on his progress.
East Zone Squad:
Ishan Kishan (captain), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (vc), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mohammed Shami, Mukesh Kumar, Kumar Kushagra, Shikhar Mohan, Anukul Roy, Virat Singh, Subhransu Senapati, Denish Das, Abhijit Sarkar.