When India dropped Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after just three innings in England, it raised a few uncomfortable questions. Had they rushed his inclusion, only to be even quicker to drop him before the 15-year-old could find his feet in international cricket? The decision to leave out the left-hander looked like more than a tactical call for another right-hander in the batting order. Still, this was the first time Sooryavanshi had faced the cruel side of cricket at the top level: that he can be benched.
So when Sooryavanshi took guard at Harare Sports Club on Thursday, all eyes were on how the teenager would respond to the first setback he has faced at this level. Since walking into the India U-19 side in 2024, he has been a mainstay of every side he has been part of. Perhaps returning to the venue where he scored 175 in the Under-19 World Cup final gave him some familiarity with the conditions. Still, there was plenty to watch for in how he went about it.
In his three innings in England, the short ball had caused him problems.The pull shot and uppercut he had leaned on through the IPL suddenly became his undoing. The issue was never really about the shot-making. It was more about adjusting to the extra bounce on offer, combined with a little movement, conditions rare in the IPL that he had not had to face before.
In the IPL, he had already shown a maturity beyond his years, quick to learn from his mistakes and quicker still to analyse them himself. This, remember, was the same teenager who said he had “played the fielder rather than the bowler” in a high-stakes IPL play-off.
With India chasing only 126, in what would become Shreyas Iyer’s first win as T20I captain, it was Sooryavanshi who set the tone. Like in England, the surface at Harare Sports Club offered bounce, a lot more lively and quick, enough for Blessing Muzarabani to pose a few hard questions. Off the first delivery he faced, Sooryavanshi tried to get away from the line of a sharp short ball and was beaten. Left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava then squared him up, the ball almost taking his edge. A wide delivery later, Sooryavanshi began to announce his arrival on the international stage. It had taken him three innings, but off the fifth ball he faced, he swung a length ball over deep square leg, one of his favourite areas.
What followed was a typical whirlwind knock from the batsman who, three weeks earlier, had become India’s youngest international debutant, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s long-standing record. After a textbook cover drive, he brought out a shot lifted straight from Virat Kohli’s own textbook, the one Kohli hit off Haris Rauf in Melbourne. India’s seamers had bowled a probing back-of-a-length line to skittle Zimbabwe for 125 earlier in the day, and when Ngarava tried the same length back at him, Sooryavanshi stood tall, went back, and punched it over long-off. In the next over, Brad Evans was punished for a boundary and a six, both through brute power.
Then came the face-off against Muzarabani. At 6’8″, his raw pace and ability to extract extra bounce had troubled the best at this year’s T20 World Cup, Australia included. Off his first two overs on Thursday, he had given away only three runs, his sharp short balls and bouncers repeatedly pushing Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan onto the back foot. When he angled one across him, Sooryavanshi pounced, slashing it inside-out over cover. In England, Indian batsmen, Sooryavanshi included, had played against similar deliveries and top-edged them. When Muzarabani went full, Sooryavanshi didn’t need a second invitation, swinging it straight down the ground, the bat swing doing the work again. By the time he danced down the track to cut him through point, Muzarabani was out of answers.
Sooryavanshi’s first international fifty came off the 18th ball he faced, before he fell almost immediately after. Going by how he went about his innings, in familiar conditions and with the same support staff who were with him during the Under-19 World Cup, he looked completely at home.
