Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Father Mother with Narendra Modi. Image Credits: X
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi received his first major break for Team India as the youngster has been selected by the BCCI for the upcoming T20I tours of Ireland and England. After enjoying a breakthrough IPL 2026 season for the Rajasthan Royals, the 15-year-old was named in a strong 16-member Indian squad, set to be led by new captain Shreyas Iyer.
If Sooryavanshi gets picked in the Indian playing XI at any stage of their two upcoming tours, the Royals star will become the youngest cricketer to play an international match for India, surpassing the previous record set by the great Sachin Tendulkar.
Upon learning of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s selection, his father Sanjeev Sooryavanshi got emotional and shared a heartfelt reaction, underlining the youngster’s priorities as he stands on the cusp of a historic international debut.
Sanjeev Sooryavanshi wants Vaibhav to “win matches for India”
Sanjeev Sooryavanshi was overjoyed over the national selection of his teenage son Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for India’s upcoming European T20I tour. However, getting selected seems to be just the first step in the eyes of the proud father, who now wants his son to win matches for Team India.
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While speaking with Vikrant Gupta on the Aaj Tak channel, Sanjeev Sooryavanshi said “He does not care about records. He now wants to win matches for India. If he wins it for India, that is my greatest record as a father.”
Watch the video below:
Ajit Agarkar says “Vaibhav picked himself”
BCCI selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar implied that the decision to select Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was quite an easy one, since the youngster had made it very difficult to ignore him. Agarkar not only cited Sooryavanshi’s recent IPL record for the Rajasthan Royals for his selection, but also recalled his Under-19 World Cup heroics from earlier this year.
He said “Vaibhav almost forced us to pick him. I know he's young, but two IPLs in a row, and we also know what he did at the Under-19 level...we can all see the kind of talent he has. We're hopeful if and when he gets an opportunity, he shows the same ability. There will be tougher challenges but he has shown great promise and temperament.”
Dream run continues for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, aged just 15, recently won the ‘Player of the Tournament’ and the ‘Orange Cap’ award for the IPL 2026 season, thus becoming the youngest cricketer in history to bag any of the two categories.
The attacking opener plundered 776 runs in just 16 innings of the tournament for the Rajasthan Royals, doing so at a prolific average of 48.50 and with a strike rate of well above 200. He also launched 72 sixes to surpass Chris Gayle’s record of hitting most maximums in a single IPL season.
Earlier this year, he blasted 175 off 80 balls in the final of the 2026 U19 World Cup in a match-winning cause for the India U19 team.
BCCI name squads for England, Ireland tours
Apart from selecting young Sooryavanshi in the team, the BCCI also made several other radical changes like removing T20 World Cup winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav from the team.
The committee named Shreyas Iyer as new captain, and Tilak Varma as his deputy. Here is a look at India’s squads for the series in Ireland and England.
India squad for England, Ireland T20I tours: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Isha Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (vc), Nitish Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
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