Vaibhav Sooryavanshi tipped to make his India T20 debut by THIS former cricketer – The Times of Bengal
Rajasthan Royals’ teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who has taken the cricketing world by a storm for his exceptional power hitting ability, has been tipped to make his India debut very soon b
Published: May 6, 2026 5:50 PM IST
Rajasthan Royals’ teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who has taken the cricketing world by a storm for his exceptional power hitting ability, has been tipped to make his India debut very soon by former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop, who also had a few surprising picks while forming an alternate squad of the Indian T20 team.
Highlights
- Rajasthan Royals’ teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who has taken the cricketing world by a storm for his exceptional power hitting ability, has been tipped to make his India debut very soon by former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been an absolute revelation since making his debut for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League last year. On his first season, as a 14-year-old, Sooryavanshi scored a total of 252 runs in 7 matches at a daunting strike rate of 206.
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His wicked bat swing helped him hit 24 sixes and 18 fours and he also became the youngest centurion ever in men’s T20 cricket when he smashed 101 off just 38 balls against the Gujarat Titans.
He hasn’t looked back since then. Sooryavanshi went on to feature for India’s youth teams in two Asia Cup competitions (the Rising Stars and U-19) as well as the U-19 ODI World Cup.
The 15-year-old impressed in all of those 3 competitions but his best came in the U-19 World Cup earlier this year. Sooryavanshi was adjudged player of the match in the finale against England for his blistering 80-ball 175 and he was also chosen as the player of the tournament for scoring 439 runs in 7 matches at an average of 62.71.
And his form in the on-going IPL season has made him a hot topic for a possible India debut. There are talks that the BCCI might hand Sooryavanshi his international debut when India goes for the white-ball tour of Ireland after the IPL.
Some do believe that Sooryavanshi is still not ready for international cricket but Ian Bishop holds a different though altogether. While speaking to ESPN cricinfo recently, Bishop was asked to formulate an alternative Indian T20 side and he firmly chose the 15-year-old as his first-choice opener along with India’s Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill.
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The 58-year-old believes that Vaibhav is ready for the next big step in his career.
“Of my openers, I’m picking three in the squad. I want a left-right match-up as well as I can. The left-hander is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. I think he’s ready to take another step.”
He picked Punjab Kings’ Prabhsimran Singh as the back-up opener and in the middle-order, Bishop went with Shreyas Iyer and Royal Challengers Bengaluru batters Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal.
Bishop chose Rajasthan Royals’ Dhruv Jurel as his wicket-keeping option and also picked Yuzvendra Chahal as his frontline spinner. He backed the spin department with a pace attack featuring Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohsin Khan, Prince Yadav and Prasidh Krishna.
Ian Bishop’s alternate Indian T20I squad: Shubman Gill, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Devdutt Padikkal, Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohsin Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prabhsimran Singh, Prince Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.
