Just give him some time – Rahul Dravid on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s future
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made his debut in international cricket a month ago, where he bagged the Player of the Series award for an incredible batting performance.
Sooryavanshi’s rise in white-ball cricket has seen him grow meteorically from IPL to List-A cricket.
Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid wants Sooryavanshi to leave his mark in all three formats of the sport.
Talking to Cricinfo at an event in Dublin, Dravid emphasised on Sooryavanshi being a part of all formats and how the transition needs to be overseen.
Dravid also pointed out time as one of the key factors which can be an absolute boon for the hard-hitting southpaw.
Rahul Dravid said, “I think you always have to find that balance. And I think it’s a great thing that Vaibhav is getting the experience of playing some white-ball cricket through the IPL in India, but he’s also having the time to go back and play red-ball cricket in the Indian domestic system and grow his red-ball career.”
He further added, “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.”
Highlighting the importance of growing gradually in the game, Dravid said, “The good thing is he’s going to take some time, he’s going to need some experience, he’s going to get an opportunity to play a lot of red-ball cricket. He’s not played as much red-ball cricket as probably white-ball cricket.”
Dravid continued, “He’s only 15 and I think you’ve got to just give him some time and you’ve got to be patient with him. He’s obviously been such a success straightaway, right, but he’s going to go through his ups and downs and I think people are going to have to be patient with him.”
He concluded by saying, “I think he’s going to have some success but he also might have periods where it probably doesn’t work out well for him. But let’s all remember he’s only 15 and he has a long way to go. So Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, by not playing in T20 competitions all over the world, is actually playing in the red-ball Indian domestic competition. He’s growing, he’s getting better at red-ball skills. Hopefully someday if he does well and performs well like he has in white-ball cricket, he might become a red-ball player for India. And how exciting that would be for the world game as well.”
