Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is doing what most cricketers at his age don’t even dream of, let alone live it. The sheer dominance with which he is taking apart some of the elite bowlers in international cricket isn’t a tale born from vivid imagination. He is possibly the only cricketer in the world to have achieved a rare distinction at the age of 15 – smashing three of the greatest fast bowlers of this generation, Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood, for a six in the first over he had faced. That is carefree or careless, only the purists can tell. Definitely not normal. In fact, a rarest of rare phenomena, and yet what lies ahead for him would be no ordinary journey, forcing Indian cricket to ask a dangerous question: are we nurturing a once-in-a-generation talent, or consuming him too early?
That is the real peg emerging from former India cricketers Arun Lal and Madan Lal, both of whom praised the teenager’s extraordinary gifts but warned against the oldest trap in Indian cricket – premature coronation. India has had its fair share of wonderkids, and one doesn’t have to go too far back in history to find them. L Sivaramakrishnan, Vinod Kambli, Maninder Singh, Sadanand Vishwanath, to name a few, had all shown great early promise but disappeared before the world could truly witness what they might have become. Young Sooryavanshi’s real test lies in the years to come. Some of which might well be off the field, more than on the field.
Sooryavanshi Great But India Has Broken Wonderkids Before
“It’s happened in the past, and in fact, generally, in India, we tend to mature much later. And I’ve seen such fantastic talent like L Sivaramakrishnan, Vinod Kambli, Maninder Singh, Sadanand Vishwanath, these guys were exceptional talent at a very young age, bloodied in early and deservedly so, but they couldn’t handle it, and they didn’t last the distance, they didn’t achieve their potential,” former India cricketer Arun Red highlighted.
However, he did not forget to mention that Sooryavanshi’s rise as a teenager appears to be a “paradigm shift” in mindset and ability, and the least all of us can do is not put pressure on him by comparing with the great Sachin Tendulkar, adding that it might well be that he is not suited for any other format, and we should be able to make peace with it.
“It is to celebrate, there’s nothing wrong in celebrating something that’s never been seen before. Right. It’s like a paradigm shift, you know, in mindset, in ability, and he’s showing the way. The bar has been raised by young Sooryavanshi, let’s not try and put pressure on him to try and emulate a Tendulkar’s longevity or his capability in all formats. It may be that he’s not suited for other formats, But he is something we’ve never seen before,” he told Sports Now.
Let Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Play, Indians Have A Different DNA
When asked whether we understand the injury risk of power-hitting, given the fact that his body is still developing at this stage, Arun Lal was quick to rebut, “I think there’s a whole lot of hogwash on all this. To keep it simple – the guy is good, and he’s young. When you’re developing body, you also have the youth flexibility. So you’re not that injury-prone. So we Indians, we’re not like the So let’s not follow that. So they don’t do this and have a stress fracture for us.
“The boy mustn’t be curbed; he should play his game and enjoy it and that’s it. Who knows, he might become the best Test cricketer tomorrow as well, who can say? Right. I will tell him to have a ball,” he further added.
Former India cricketer and part of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning team, Madan Lal struck a similar note, urging the cricket ecosystem to stop the inevitable comparisons with Sachin Tendulkar.
“We should not compare Sooryavanshi with Sachin Tendulkar. It is not fair. He has just started. There is no doubt that he is very talented, and he is playing very well in the IPL. He needs to focus on the game now and forget about everything else. As Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, or Rohit Sharma did, he has to be consistent to be a great player. He is 15. So a lot of changes are expected to come. Come. Money will come, but he should only think about cricket,” Madan Lal told Sports Now.
Sooryavanshi Urged To Follow Discipline of Virat Kohli
Madan Lal went a step further and urged Sooryavanshi to follow Kohli’s footsteps and learn from his discipline.
“He needs to prepare like Virat Kohli. Kohli takes the most singles and doubles, along with hitting the big shots. He is looking after himself according to the demands of the game. So, Sooryavanshi also has to look after himself. But what I don’t like is that he sometimes plays as the Impact Player. A 15-year-old is sitting outside. When he plays, that experience will help him to grow as a cricketer. How will he learn to field. if he is sitting outside?” he asked.
“He is technically solid. There is no doubt about it. And I want him to play in the Test matches. He will earn a lot of money in T20 cricket, but to achieve fame and success, he has to succeed in Test matches like Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli, and Sachin Tendulkar did. I will advise him to just focus on cricket,” he concluded.
The message was clear: brilliance at 15 guarantees headlines, not longevity. And that may be the sharpest warning of all. India has found its next sensation. And cricket has much to lose if Sooryavanshi ends up just being a T20 spectacle. The money will come from franchise cricket, fame will follow suit, but as Madan Lal bluntly put it, true greatness lies in Test cricket.
The hype has begun, leaving him to navigate a cricketing eco-system that has seen dreams go down the slippery slope, not once but many times. The real challenge will be to build the player behind the phenomenon.
India has already found its wonderkid. But the bigger question is whether India knows how to raise one in an age of social media that simply did not exist when Tendulkar played.
