Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan has thrown his weight behind teenage starlet Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, insisting that performance at the highest level should be more important than age.
Dhawan was full of praise for the youngster’s fearless attitude, especially against top-order bowlers, highlighting how rare such confidence is at such an early stage.
“If Vaibhav performs well at the senior level, then that has to be considered and not his age. Yes, he is a kid, but the way he hit Bumrah and Arshdeep for such huge sixes was amazing,” Dhawan told PTI in an interview.
“A lot of the big guys haven’t done what he did at such a young age. Obviously his time will come. It will come.”
Sooryavanshi proved this with numbers in IPL 2026. He scored 4 hundreds at an astonishing strike rate of 238.10, putting him among the leading run-scorers, while also hitting 37 sixes, the most by any batsman so far.
Dhawan admitted, however, that disrupting India’s established supreme order remains a challenge. With India recently winning the 2026 T20 World Cup and players like Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma performing well, chances may not come easily.
“Look if the top order does well, you can’t replace them easily. When Rohit and Virat were playing, we played for almost ten years and it’s not easy to replace us.
“It depends on how the individual looks at it. It might make you feel a little stressed, but you shouldn’t be discouraged if opportunities don’t come easily. Vaibhav has been blessed with so many blessings at such a young age.”
He also spoke about the evolution of T20 batting over the years, with a clear shift towards attacking intent while still emphasizing the importance of technique.
“When we started, our coach said to bat along the ground, but now it’s the opposite. Like Vaibhav has good defence, I’ve seen him defend close to the body.”
130670202
advertise
Talking about adapting to different formats, Dhawan emphasized that mentality plays a vital role, especially for the generation who grew up playing T20 cricket.
“Techniques need to be good, but switching formats requires a change in mentality, knowing when you need to speed up or slow down. It requires match practice. Today’s generation is building their game on T20, so they will face challenges.”
