Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid believes the franchise can provide 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi with "a good environment" for his impending appearance in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Vaibhav Suryavanshi became the youngest player ever to be bought in the IPL auction when RR splurged INR 1.10 Cr on him in the IPL 2025 auction. At just 13 years and 243 days on November 25, Vaibhav’s selection in the Rajasthan Royals has raised quite a few eyebrows.
"I think he's (Suryavanshi) got some really good skills, so we thought it might be a good environment for him to grow in. Vaibhav just came to our trials and we were really happy with what he saw," Dravid told IPL.
Suryavanshi recently became the youngest batter to score an international century, scoring 104 runs in 62 deliveries for India Under-19 against Australia U-19 in Chennai.
He also made his T20 debut for Bihar in the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match against Rajasthan on Saturday, scoring a 6-ball 13. Suryavanshi has made an impact on the youth circuit, but he is yet to play a noteworthy knock in First-Class cricket, with an average of 10 after five matches and a best score of 41.
Commenting on RR's auction performance, Dravid stated that while the team had managed to keep its core before the auction, their major goal was to get good bowlers now.
Akash Madhwal, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Ashok Sharma, and Kwena Maphaka are the latest additions to their pace department. They have signed Kumar Kartikeya Singh and Maheesh Theekshana as spinners, while Wanindu Hasaranga and Yudhvir Charak have joined as all-rounders.
"We came into this auction having retained a lot of our core Indian batsmen. A big target for us in this auction was bowlers, showing that we did a really strong bowling attack. I think we achieved that.
We got some really good bowlers, and a couple of really good spinners, and backed it up with a really good Indian spinner in Karthikeya. So, having someone like Jofra and his skills and unique skills, backed that up with a couple of left-handers,” Dravid stated in a video for IPL.
"We like the change in angle, like the swing that both Faruqui and Maphaka bring for us. We really enjoyed the whole process, not only just the pure auction. There are ten, nine other teams and they're all really well prepared and all come really well planned. You've got to be able to think on your feet, you've got to have plan A, B, C, D. Yeah, it was quite challenging at times, but it was great fun and I really enjoyed it,” Dravid concluded.
RR retained Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, and Sandeep Sharma ahead of the auction.
(PTI inputs)
