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Former Indian national cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly has made his stand clear on Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s future in international cricket. While the former BCCI president feels the teenage talent is good enough to come straight into India’s T20 squad, he believes Test cricket should still wait for the youngster.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi has taken Indian cricket by storm with his fearless batting in the IPL in the last two seasons. The Rajasthan Royals batsman has been thrashing bowlers all over the field despite being just 15 years old and many experts have already started calling for him to be included in all three formats for Team India.
“In T20, he should be included immediately, but not in Test cricket” – Sourav Ganguly on Vaibhav Suryavanshi
Speaking in an exclusive interview with TOI, Sourav Ganguly backed Vaibhav Suryavanshi for immediate T20I selection, but ruled out the possibility of him playing Test cricket in the near future.
Ganguly said the youngster still needs to score heavily in first-class cricket before being considered for the longest format of the game.
Sourav Ganguly said, “He should be included immediately in T20, but not in Test cricket. He will have to score more runs to get a place in first-class cricket.”
The former India captain, however, couldn’t stop himself from praising the Rajasthan Royals youngster and termed him one of India’s biggest future stars.
Ganguly said, “But at the moment he is very talented. It is unprecedented to see a 15-year-old boy bat like this against everyone in the world. He is the future of India.”
Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s statistics in IPL and first-class cricket
Suryavanshi has indeed looked like a different breed of batsman since his arrival in the IPL. The left-handed batsman has shown no fear at all against the international bowlers and has consistently attacked from the first ball.
What has impressed many experts is not just his power-hitting but the confidence with which he faces the senior bowlers. At 15, most players are still trying to settle into domestic cricket, but Suryavanshi has already become one of the biggest names in the IPL.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s statistics in T20 cricket already look extraordinary for a player of his age. In two IPL seasons for Rajasthan Royals, the youngster has scored 835 runs in 21 matches at an average of 39.76 and an impressive strike rate of 223.86. He has already scored two centuries and four half-centuries in the tournament.
In IPL 2026 alone, Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 583 runs in 14 matches at an average of 41.64 and strike rate of 232.27. He scored one century and three half-centuries during the season, while hitting 50 fours and 53 sixes.
However, his first-class numbers are still quite modest. Vaibhav Suryavanshi has played eight first-class matches so far and has scored 207 runs in 12 innings at an average of 17.25. His highest score in red-ball cricket is 93 and he has only one half-century to his name. These figures perhaps explain why Sourav Ganguly feels that Test cricket should not come too soon for the youth.
“We learned our cricket in different eras” – Sourav Ganguly
During the same conversation, Sourav Ganguly also reflected on how rapidly cricket has evolved over the years. When Ganguly was asked whether he, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar ever thought that T20 cricket would become so dominant after 25 years, Ganguly admitted that his generation learned cricket very differently.
Ganguly said, “No. We learned our cricket in a different era. And why just us three? (Ricky) Ponting, (Kumar) Sangakkara, Joe Root, Alastair Cook… you name it.”
The former India captain said that modern cricket has changed massively and T20 cricket is now shaping a completely different generation of batsmen.
“This is a different generation. Things keep changing in life, nothing is constant. So players also change and that’s what’s going to happen. T20 cricket is here to stay and it will continue to produce talent that will just swing through the line and put the ball in the stands,” he said.
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