Vaibhav Sooryavanshi becomes youngest cricketer to earn Team India cap
What's the story
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old cricket prodigy, has made his much-awaited international debut for India. The dasher earned his maiden cap ahead of the second T20I against England at Manchester's Old Trafford. With this, Sooryavanshi becomes the first player to make his Team India debut before his 16th birthday. Notably, Sooryavanshi came in place of Sanju Samson, who struggled in his last three outings.
IPL success
Sooryavanshi's stellar IPL performance
Sooryavanshi's selection for the senior India team came after an outstanding IPL 2026 season with Rajasthan Royals. However, he warmed the benches in the two T20Is against Ireland and did not play in the first T20I against England as well (which was abandoned due to rain). The team management had preferred to stick with the successful top-order combination of Samson and Abhishek Sharma that helped India win the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Feat
Sooryavanshi goes past Tendulkar
Aged 15 years and 99 days, Sooryavanshi becomes the youngest Indian debutant. He went past the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who made his international debut in the 1981 Karachi Test against Pakistan, aged 16 years and 205 days. Meanwhile, Washington Sundar was India's previous youngest T20I debutant, having made his debut in 2017 (18 years and 80 days).
Information
Who is the youngest debutant in international cricket?
Sooryavanshi, meanwhile, became the second-youngest player to debut for a full-member team in international cricket. He is only behind Pakistan's Hasan Raza, who first appeared at this stage in 1996, aged 14 years and 227 days.
Campaign
Golden run in IPL 2026
The Rajasthan Royals sensation won the Orange Cap in IPL 2026, having tallied an impressive 776 runs in 16 matches while striking at 237.30. Sooryavanshi made these runs at an average of 48.50, having tallied five fifties and a ton. While the 15-year-old southpaw smoked 72 sixes in IPL 2026, no other batter has tallied even 60 maximums in a T20 tournament. Notably, he recorded four 90-plus scores in this edition.
T20 stats
Here are his IPL numbers
Sooryavanshi also holds the record of being the youngest centurion in men's T20 cricket, achieving the feat at just 14 years and 32 days old. He blasted a 35-ball century for the Rajasthan Royals against the Gujarat Titans last year. Overall, he owns 1,028 IPL runs at 46.72 across 23 innings. While he strikes at 228.95, no other batter with at least 1,000 IPL runs has a 180-plus strike rate (50s: 6, 100s: 2).
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4 tons in just 34 innings
Overall, the batter has scored 1,477 runs across 34 innings in T20 cricket at an average of 44.75 and a strike rate of 220.44. Four of his 10 50-plus scores in the format have been converted into tons. His best score in the format is a stunning 144.