It is, of course, without much of a doubt that among the most noted and widely talked about talents to have emerged in all Indian cricket is that of Vaibhav Sooryanshi. Few men have gone on to represent
any vertical of the game for the national men’s senior team after bursting out on the IPL stage and even fewer have managed to dominate global cricketing headlines in the manner as that of a certain Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
From quickly emerging on the IPL scene as its youngest debutant, ever to scoring the fastest 700 plus runs ever in terms of years of age playing for the format to topping the run charts in the process, Sooryavanshi, whose talent knows no bounds has done that in a very rapid space of time and is now a long term future, or so it seems, of the Rajasthan Royals. He’s even made his much talked about India debut where it comes to representing the country in the international shortest format as seen recently against Zimbabwe. He would hit 2 fifties out of 3 innings there.
And now it seems that the forever run hungry and big hitting run maker from Bihar has added a new feather to his hat to achievements in recently being made the vice captain of the eminent East Zone in the prestigious Duleep Trophy, a cornerstone for domestic competition here in India.
But while the big responsibility of acting as the semi skipper of the famous East Zone side may still be riddled with its own set of challenges where Sooryavanshi is concerned, someone who’s not particularly pleased by this recent call to appoint a highly inexperienced batter as the vice captain is none other than former keeper-batter of the men’s senior India side- Deep Das Gupta.
He’s having none of that.
As a matter of fact, the former India wicketkeeper-batte has actually criticized the decision to appoint 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi as East Zone’s vice-captain for the 2026-27 Duleep Trophy. The domestic tournament is scheduled to begin on August 23.
Favouring Anukul Roy, who Deep Das Gupta has said perhaps deserved the role, the right handed former batsman shared his statement with regard to Sooryavanshi.
“I don't agree with this decision. There are players in this team, like Anukul, who have been playing for several years. They could have been given that leadership role. I do agree that, despite being just 15 or 16 years old, he is extremely mature. There's no doubt about that. But I don't think there was any need to make this move at this stage, especially in red-ball cricket.”
However, that wasn’t all!
The visibly disappointed former Indian cricketer who hails from West Bengal has argued for a case of merit and experience over irrationality that seems to have emerged in the case of Sooryavanshi having been made the caption and would further add:
"It is beyond me, absolutely beyond me, that you make someone who has only recently started playing red-ball cricket, and is still very young, the vice-captain of an East Zone team. He hasn't even established himself in red-ball cricket yet. He doesn't have enough numbers at that level, and he hasn't played many matches either. So, just let him play first. Let him establish himself."
