Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is all set to travel to Ireland for his T20I debut, but if England great Michael Vaughan is to be believed, the 15-year-old should be in the reckoning when the team tours England for its limited-overs leg in July. India plays five T20Is and three ODIs, and even though there’s time for Ajit Agarkar and his selection committee to name the 15-member squad, Vaughan, almost out of borderline desperation, has requested the board to get the kid on that flight to the UK.
On the latest episode of the Stick to Cricket podcast, where a plethora of England legends got together, Vaughan, David Lloyd, Alastair Cook, Alex Hartley and Phil Tuffnell discussed the rampant rise of Sooryavanshi. Almost everyone following cricket under the sun wants Sooryavanshi to make his India debut at just 15. There’s a strong possibility that he might earn his India cap in Ireland, but a final call will be taken only closer to the date. Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that had any of these been part of the selection panel, Sooryavanshi would, by now, have played for the senior team.
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Vaughan: Sooryavanshi… 246 runs, average of 41, striking at 236.
Lloyd: Shouldn’t he be at school? You can’t leave school.
Vaughan: I don’t think he’s at school, Dave. I reckon he’s going to go on that T20 trip to Ireland. Isn’t he? I would have him in the squad for the England series this summer.
Tuffnell: Why not? Why wouldn’t he?
Cook: Does he have a passport?
Vaughan: If he was 20… just because he’s 15, you’re like ‘Oh, we’ve got to be careful’. Jasprit Bumrah ran in, and he just flicked him into the stands for a six.
Hartley: It’s almost like these young kids who grow up these days have this lovely arrogance. They don’t feel the pressure are like, ‘I’ll just go and play the game’. And I love it when he just comes in and goes like, ‘Alright! Jofra Archer… bang’. See you later. Why would you not pick him?
Vaughan: The new T20 opener is him. Even Jaiswal has been playing great at the other end. But at times, Sooryavanshi has made him look ‘just ok’. And he’s outstanding.
If the last season of the Indian Premier League was a teaser, this one’s turning out to be a full blockbuster. With 220 runs including three half-centuries, Sooryavanshi is currently placed fourth on the Orange Cap list, behind Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen and Shubman Gill. Virat Kohli, winner of two Orange Caps, is currently a run below Sooryavanshi.
