Former Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has advised the Indian team management to be patient with the 15-year-old explosive opening batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi while giving him a chance in the red-ball format.
Speaking exclusively to JioHotstar, Rahul disclosed the reason why he believes Sooryavanshi can make it into the Indian Test XI despite a lot of competition with the Indian Test team during the transition phase.
“With Vaibhav (Sooryavanshi), 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 the 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 said while speaking to JioHotstar.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi broke major records during the IPL 2026 season, including hitting the most sixes (72) and scoring the most runs (776) to win the Orange Cap. Furthermore, Dravid reckoned that it’s yet to be seen whether the teen batting prodigy can play two full seasons in domestic cricket.
“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 trickier,” Dravid added.
At 15 years and 99 days, Sooryavanshi emerged as the youngest Indian to make his international debut, breaking the men’s record held by the great Sachin Tendulkar and also the overall record held by Shafali Verma.
