Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continues to impress the very best. After earning praise from cricketing circles across the world for his batting exploits, the youngster has now found an admirer in none other than the legendary Glenn McGrath. Widely regarded as the greatest right-arm fast bowler of all time, McGrath was blown away by Sooryavanshi’s performances in IPL 2026, where he finished with 776 runs and won the Orange Cap.
However, as highly as McGrath rates Sooryavanshi, he is reserving his final judgment until he sees how the youngster fares away from home. Sooryavanshi has already enjoyed considerable success with India Under 19, scoring centuries in England, Australia and South Africa. But now that he is part of the senior setup, his performances in Ireland and England later this month could go a long way towards determining whether he earns McGrath’s full stamp of approval.
“You probably look at someone like Brian Lara with that backlift. You look back, and Gary Sobers is another one who comes to mind. He was incredible. Normally, players have more force than sixes, but he had 72 sixes and 63 fours. He’s obviously a powerful hitter and has definitely changed the game. They have no fear, do they? They don’t care whether it’s Pat Cummers bowling. If it’s there, he just hits through it, The Times of India quoted McGrath as saying.
Did someone say Test cricket?
McGrath, who finished with 563 wickets in 124 Tests, is eager to know about Sooryavanshi’s aspirations in Test cricket. While the youngster has only taken the first few steps in his international career, many believe he can only be considered an all-time great if he succeeds in the toughest format of the game. Sachin Tendulkar has already backed Sooryavanshi for Test cricket, while AB de Villiers has thrown him the same challenge.
Perhaps one day Sooryavanshi will play Test cricket and even flourish in it. The youngster himself told Sunil Gavaskar that he has already begun practicing with the red ball. Rest assured, when that time comes, McGrath will have a keen eye on how the prodigy fares in the longest format.
“I like to think players will look after Test cricket and it’s still the ultimate. But there’s some players that probably don’t want to play a longer version of the game. You look at Tim David for Australia, came through, played IPL before he played for Australia. Maybe that’s just the modern game. You’d have to ask him (Vaibhav) whether he has aspirations of going on to play red ball cricket, Test cricket for India,” McGrath was quoted as saying by the New Indian Express.
