Sooryavanshi Heads Into Duleep Trophy With Dravid Urging Patience

Rahul Dravid wants Vaibhav Sooryavanshi kept in red-ball cricket, and the Duleep Trophy hands him that from Sunday. The former India head coach was speaking in Dublin on Saturday, at an event marking the inaugural season of the European T20 Premier League. Sooryavanshi is 15. He plays the 2026-27 Duleep Trophy as East Zone vice-captain, under Ishan Kishan. The tournament starts on 23 August at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

Dravid owns the Dublin Guardians franchise in the new European league. He also coached Sooryavanshi at Rajasthan Royals. That gives his reading of the teenager some standing. Sooryavanshi took the Orange Cap in IPL 2026 with 776 runs, the youngest player to finish a season on top of the run charts. His first-class numbers sit a long way below that.

Dravid's words in Dublin

"I think you always have to find that balance. And I think it is a great thing that Vaibhav is getting the experience of playing some white-ball cricket through the IPL in India, but he is also having the time to go back and play red-ball cricket in the Indian domestic system and grow his red-ball career," Dravid said, in remarks carried by the news agency ANI.

He went further on the format itself. "All of us also want to see Test cricket survive, all of us want to see Test cricket grow, and we need players like him to be able to hopefully play all formats of the game," he said. On the pace of that development he was blunt. "He is only 15, and I think you have got to just give him some time and you have got to be patient with him."

The red-ball ledger

The gap between the two records is wide. Sooryavanshi has 207 runs in eight first-class matches at 17.25, according to ANI. ESPNcricinfo places that return across 12 Ranji Trophy Plate League innings. His T20I record runs to 193 runs in six matches at 32.16, ANI reported, struck at 189.21. Eight first-class games is a small sample for a batter of any age. It is a very small one at 15.

East Zone name Kishan and Sooryavanshi

East Zone settled their squad at a selection meeting in Kolkata in late July. Kishan leads. Sooryavanshi is his deputy, a first leadership job in zonal red-ball cricket. Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar carry the seam attack, with Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sudip Gharami in the top order. The 15 named are:

• Ishan Kishan (captain)
• Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (vice-captain)
• Abhimanyu Easwaran
• Sudip Gharami
• Shahbaz Ahmed
• Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal
• Mohammed Shami
• Mukesh Kumar
• Kumar Kushagra
• Shikhar Mohan
• Anukul Roy
• Virat Singh
• Subhranshu Senapati
• Denish Das
• Abhijit Sarkar

Bengaluru opens the domestic season

The Duleep Trophy keeps its inter-zonal shape, with six zones in the draw. Play begins on 23 August at the BCCI Centre of Excellence. Clubs, academies and state associations follow the tournament closely. It is the first red-ball checkpoint of the Indian season. Rajasthan Royals called the vice-captaincy Sooryavanshi's first leadership role in zonal red-ball cricket.

He prepared at the Rajasthan Royals high-performance centre under Vikram Rathour, ESPNcricinfo reported. Dravid is not asking for immediate returns. He asked for time.