The national selectors have set the ball rolling for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s inclusion in India’s white-ball setup, with the 15-year-old included in the A squad for the tri-series to be played in Sri Lanka starting June 9. As previously reported by The Indian Express, the selectors are keen on fast-tracking the young batting sensation in the white-ball team with the upcoming T20 series in the UK against Ireland and England or the series in Zimbabwe in July being a definite possibility.
It is with this school of thought that the selectors have picked him in the India A squad that will tour Sri Lanka, where Afghanistan will be the third team. Ever since Sooryavanshi made his IPL debut last season and announced his arrival with a first ball six off Shardul Thakur, the opener has had a steady rise. The left-hander was part of India’s 2026 Under-19 World Cup winning squad and made 175 in the final against England.
And following those exploits, in this year’s IPL, the left-hander showed his batting continues to evolve, having scored 440 runs in 11 outings, including a century and two fifties.
With India’s selectors showing the clarity to build towards the future, investing in Sooryavanshi straightaway fits their plan. While Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson’s places remain locked in the T20 setup, given the packed calendar that India have, which sees them play white-ball series in Zimbabwe, UK, Sri Lanka and New Zealand apart from home series and the Asian Games, a wide pool of players are being looked at.
This year, India’s primary focus in the white-ball cricket remains on ODIs with an eye on next year’s World Cup. With Samson being considered as one of the options in the 50-over team, there is a scope of a spot opening up in the T20S should the selectors plan on rotation and workload management.
Should Sooryavanshi seamlessly transition himself into the senior setup, it will give the selectors and the team management multiple options and also field concurrent strong teams without having to compromise. Although the left-hander has shown slight struggles when it comes to raw pace, his intent has remained the same.
Though there were concerns around his off side play, this season, he has shown that his range has evolved. With form on his side, picking him in the India A squad seems like the ideal place for him to grow as a batsman.before he fronts up to tougher challenges in future.
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“He is taking every bowler down. I wouldn’t mind watching him in a Test match, and I wouldn’t mind watching him in all three formats of the game. Get him onto cricket grounds, get people coming along, because he is going to entertain you,” former India player R Ashwin told Jio Hotstar.
There have been some doubters, too. Speaking on the ‘For The Love of Cricket’ podcast, AB de Villiers said Sooryavanshi’s talent was obvious but warned that stepping beyond T20 cricket would bring entirely different mental and physical challenges.
“We all know the talent is there. I would like to see him in other formats, in Test cricket. He doesn’t yet know what he’s in for, and a lot of things will change. Unless someone, a really good manager, comes around and says to him, ‘Listen, you are a T20 specialist for the rest of your life, congratulations. That’s all you’re going to do’. Then there will be a very long and successful career, I have no doubt. But if he does start nibbling around with ODIs in particular, Test cricket, he will discover a whole different area of his cricket mentally and physically and so forth,” he added.
India A squad: Tilak Varma (Captain), Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag (Vice-Captain), Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Harsh Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Prabhsimran Singh (WK), Kumar Kushagra (WK), Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Arshad Khan.
