Dravid urges patience as 15-year-old Sooryavanshi faces Test cricket's hard truth

Rahul Dravid has delivered a blunt reality check on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's Test credentials, insisting the teenage sensation needs a carefully managed pathway if he is to become the all-format player Indian cricket hopes he can be.

Speaking to Cricinfo, the former India head coach — who worked with Sooryavanshi at Rajasthan Royals during IPL 2025 — stressed that the batter's rapid white-ball rise must not obscure a modest first-class record that still needs serious investment.

A return to red-ball cricket

Sooryavanshi, who exploded onto the scene with a breakthrough IPL campaign before making his T20I debut in England in June, is now set to return to the longer format with East Zone in the Duleep Trophy. His first-class numbers, however, remain far from the hype: he averages just 17.25 from 12 innings across three stints in the Ranji Trophy Plate League, with those domestic campaigns repeatedly interrupted by India U19 commitments.

Dravid believes the youngster's exposure to both formats is a positive development, but underlined the importance of red-ball grounding.

“I think you always have to find that balance. And I think it is a great thing that Vaibhav is getting the experience of playing some white-ball cricket through the IPL in India, but he is also having the time to go back and play red-ball cricket in the Indian domestic system and grow his red-ball career.”

Tests need players like him

The former India captain broadened the point into a wider concern for the health of the game's longest format, tying Sooryavanshi's development to Test cricket's long-term survival.

“All of us also want to see Tests survive, all of us want to see Tests grow and we need players like him to be able to hopefully play all formats of the game.”

That ambition, Dravid stressed, requires sustained exposure to red-ball cricket — something the teenager simply has not yet had at anything like the volume of his white-ball work.

“The good thing is he is going to take some time, he is going to need some experience, he is going to get an opportunity to play a lot of red-ball cricket. He hasn’t played as much red-ball cricket as probably white-ball cricket.”

‘Give him time’

The 15-year-old's meteoric rise has inevitably generated outsized expectations, but Dravid urged everyone — selectors, media and fans alike — to allow the youngster to develop at his own pace rather than judging him on early success alone.

“He is only 15 and I think you have got to just give him some time and you have got to be patient with him. He has obviously been such a success straightaway, right, but he is going to go through his ups and downs and I think people are going to have to be patient with him.”

The Duleep Trophy stint with East Zone now offers Sooryavanshi the next proving ground — a chance to begin closing the gap between the buzz around his name and the cold mathematics of his first-class average.