East Zone won the Duleep Trophy 2026 by defeating South Zone on the basis of the first-innings lead. This game was played at the M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai and saw Ishan Kishan, the East Zone captain, win the Player of the Match award for his 270 and 80 in the game.
On the other hand, vice-captain Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had a decent outing with scores of 44 and 8 in the summit clash. However, the tournament also gave us a glimpse of his captaincy and leadership potential, as he led the East Zone team for a few overs after Ishan Kishan was off the field due to an injury during the semi-finals and the summit clash as well.
Sooryavanshi first experienced making successful DRS calls during this time. Sooryavanshi continued to play a crucial role in determining whether to take a review later in the final, even when Ishan was leading the team on the field.
After a viral video of the teenage prodigy convincing Ishan to take a review—which turned out to be the right choice—Sooryavanshi became the subject of social media conversation. But in a later video that the BCCI released, Ishan jokingly claimed that Sooryavanshi claimed credit for reviews that he had planned to take.
"Yeh sab review mein credit le hi liya hai har jagah. Bhale main lene waala tha review, but aake mast bol deta tha main aapke paas aa jaata hu. Phir toh internet will be like: 'Vaibhav!' (He has taken all the credit for the reviews everywhere.) Even though I was about to take the review, he would come and say it so confidently, 'I'll come to you.' Then the internet would be like, 'Vaibhav!'" Ishan said while teasing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the BCCI video.
"My goodness! Vaibhav is the one! Toh bohot acche se isne woh kaarya nibhaya hai. I am very happy. (So he played that role really well. I'm very happy," the East Zone skipper added.
However, Sooryavanshi showed his quick wit and reminded Kishan of the semi-final when Ishan went off with an injury, and he had to step up to make the big tactical calls.
"Aur jab field ke bahar jaa rahe the tab kon le raha tha review? Yeh bhi toh bata dijiye. (And when we were going off the field, who was taking the reviews then? Tell us that too!)," Sooryavanshi countered.
"Haan, that was Vaibhav himself! Yes. Future captain, maybe? Let's see how it goes," he said.
Ishan also mentioned that Sooryavanshi's keen instincts on the field were acknowledged by commentators during the game.
"Commentator ne kaha agar ab aapne review lena hai na, toh aapko jaana hai Vaibhav Sooryavanshi ke paas. (If you want to take a review now, you have to go to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi)," Ishan remarked.
"But it's very good to have him in the team because, you know, more than a very good player, he's a very nice boy who takes care of each and every one in the team, whether it's a junior player or senior... Achha, junior toh tu hi hua, sorry, sorry. (Oh, you're the junior here, sorry, sorry!) And that is one quality which I love about him. And hopefully, he'll be more dangerous than he is today. I think it's not going to be his first or the last. I think he's going to play many more like this, and he'll keep performing the way he's doing right now," Ishan concluded.
Ishan Kishan and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will now be seen for the Indian team as they take on Afghanistan in Delhi in three T20Is and then the Asian Games 2026 in Japan.
