Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is getting a lot of compliments these days! That he is a demigod. That he is Lamine Yamal-level talent. A halo of superlatives around him for sure.
Wait, you can get carried away and drown yourself in the hype, without ever realising that we are discussing a teen boy who has played just 8 first-class games to date in more than two years and averages just 17.25 in those games. And just a fifty to speak of.
Since when have T20s become so important? You hear any cricketer, from Sachin Tendulkar to MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli, they say all the time that Test cricket is the pinnacle, the ultimate summit. Excelling there is the only thing that matters. White-ball cricket is good like pickle to make food spicy now and then, but Test cricket is a staple which nourishes a player, day in and day out.
There is no denying that the 15-year-old is a prodigy. He is special for sure. There are not many in the world who can hit sixes at will, to all corners of the park. And definitely, not at the age of 15. But portraying him as a panacea is not going to help him or cricket, as a matter of fact.
Surya and Abhishek examples to look at!
There are two examples from which Sooryavanshi can learn a lot, and if he doesn’t do it in time, one can’t be sure how long the hype will sustain. One is the example of Suryakumar Yadav, who is on the way out now after having a few very good years initially in T20Is. He played a Test and several ODIs but failed to make an impression there.
Imagine, if, after being hyped in T20s and being constantly described as a rare 360-degree player, you don’t do well in Test cricket or even ODIs, that can be very hurtful.
What kind of status does he enjoy now in Indian cricket despite leading them to the 2026 T20 World Cup title? It’s not extraordinary status for sure, and the day he walks off into the sunset, it’s unlikely his name will be taken in the same vein as some of the Test stars. All because he couldn’t make a mark as a Test cricketer or even as an ODI cricketer!
Abhishek Sharma is sailing in the same boat. Just a couple of months back, when he was struggling in the T20 World Cup, he had lost all support from fans. Former Pakistani pacer Mohammad Amir even called him a slogger. How deprecating!
Now, as long as he continues scoring in T20s, he is safe. But he can’t maintain it for long because the game is too fast-paced, and the opposition teams will figure him out completely at some point.
He has already been figured out to some extent. Without good technique, which only comes from playing red-ball cricket, one can’t be sure if Abhishek is in for the long haul. And if he doesn’t have much time for red-ball because of a packed T20 schedule, how will he improve? It’s been more than a year since he played a Ranji Trophy game.
To enjoy true stardom like Jasprit Bumrah, Virat Kohli, or Sachin Tendulkar, one has to be good across formats. The big fear with Sooryavanshi is that he might get carried away by all the T20 focus on him. He may not take red-ball cricket seriously at all. It’s a big responsibility for people managing him — the populace is also part of that, intangibly — that he stays grounded and understands the importance of Test cricket. That there is much more to cricket than a mere innings of 120 balls.
So, it’s paramount to save him. The BCCI and the current and former Indian cricketers have their work cut out for them now. They will have to hold the mirror up to him all the time. They can’t stoke up the public and media frenzy that has been building up for some time now.