Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, India’s 15-year-old cricket sensation, might have to wait a while longer before making his senior international debut.
Anticipation was high when Sooryavanshi was picked by India for the T20 series in Ireland and England after becoming the talk of cricket following his stunning exploits in the 2026 Indian Premier League, where he was the MVP after hitting 776 runs in 16 innings.
However, he didn’t feature in either of India’s unexpected losses to Ireland in Belfast last week, with assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate saying afterward that the teenage opener was “going to have to go through the same process as everyone else and bide his time.”
Speaking Tuesday in Chester-le-Street ahead of the five-match T20 series against England, India captain Shreyas Iyer wasn’t prepared to make any promises, either.
“Our hands are tied at the moment in terms of what we are going to do because this is very private, this is something we discuss in the team,” Iyer said when asked if fans were going to see Sooryavanshi.
“We can’t let everyone know about what combinations we are going to play and let the opponents know that this is going to happen.”
However, Iyer added: “Definitely he is a brilliant prodigy, and whenever he gets an opportunity to play definitely he’ll do brilliant.”
India — the reigning T20 world champion — has been keeping faith with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as openers, though they both got ducks in the loss to Ireland in the second T20 on Sunday that ensured the Irish swept the series.
Iyer said the T20s in England, starting with the first in Durham on Wednesday, was a “new chapter for us.”
“It wasn’t embarrassing,” he said of the 2-0 loss to Ireland, “but it was depressing for us because we definitely didn’t expect Ireland to play that well. They outplayed us in every department.
“They had brilliant ideas about the dimensions of the ground, and we fell short in terms of analyzing and planning the ground and the dimensions and how the wicket would be played. Credit to them. But we learnt a lot from that series.”
England is coming off its own disappointing series, after losing 2-1 to New Zealand in the test format.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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