Ravi Shastri has come out aggressively in support of teenage Indian star Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and wants him to debut for India without delay.
15-year-old Sooryavanshi has been a devastating force in white-ball cricket in the last couple of years, and he has scored two centuries in the IPL, where some of the top bowlers have bowled to him. Despite his great run, many have advocated that he should prove himself a little more before the selectors bestow the India debut on him. Shastri disagrees — strongly.
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“A lot of people will ask, is he 15, is he 16, is he 14? I don’t care. I just see the way he is batting at the moment and the way he’s taking on all comers twice his age or maybe two and a half times his age. It doesn’t matter to him,” Shastri told host Sanjana Ganesan on the latest episode of The ICC Review.
“So I think he’s very, very much in the reckoning. And when you have tours of Ireland [in June for 2 T20Is] and all this happening now, I would be looking into him straight away.
“I can tell you that, for sure, because if you want to encourage or get someone young and into the setup as quickly as possible, then it’s the T20 format of the game, and he is not short by any margin.
“This guy can walk into a lot of sides in world cricket at this current moment in time. Just when you look at the exuberance of youth, that youth shows on his face.”
His records say it all!
Sooryavanshi has recently been added to the India A squad for an ODI tri-series, involving hosts Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, from June 9-21. Later that month, the Indian team travels to Ireland for 2 T20Is before flying to England for a five-T20I and a three-ODI series.
Sooryavanshi has scored 440 runs so far in IPL 2026 in 11 games at an average of 40 and a strike rate of 236.56, including a 103 off 37 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad. He has hit six 40 sixes, maximum by any this season.
Last year, he had scored a 35-ball century against Gujarat Titans. In the Under-19 World Cup final earlier this year, he scored 175 off just 80 balls in Harare as the Indian team comfortably beat England. He is also the youngest in world cricket to score a List A hundred playing for Bihar last year.
Tonight, he is back in action against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Ahead of the match, Shastri’s words should encourage him to smash some more records.