Former India captain Rahul Dravid believes the game needs players like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to develop into all-format cricketers, while stressing the importance of giving the 15-year-old enough time and exposure to red-ball cricket.
“I think you always have to find that balance. “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. “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.
Dravid, who coached Sooryavanshi at Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025, said the youngster’s development needs to be carefully managed, with a balance between white-ball opportunities and red-ball cricket. But let’s all remember he’s only 15 and he has a long way to go,” he said.
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,” Dravid told Cricinfo at an event in Dublin to unveil the European T20 Premier League (ETPL). “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,” he added. He’s not played as much red-ball cricket as probably white-ball cricket,” Dravid said.
Dravid hoped Sooryavanshi can eventually make the transition into red-ball cricket at the highest level and become an all-format player for India. “Hopefully, someday if he does well and performs well as 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,” he said.
