Arun Dhumal urged the BCCI and Rajasthan Royals to carefully guide 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi as the IPL 2026 star continues his run-scoring spree.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continues to dominate headlines after his sensational IPL 2026 campaign for Rajasthan Royals. The 15-year-old opener has already scored 583 runs this season and recently earned a place in the India A squad for the 50-over tour of Sri Lanka.
Amid growing calls for his inclusion in India’s senior T20I squad for the Ireland and England series, Arun Dhumal urged the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Rajasthan Royals to carefully guide the teenager’s development.
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“I feel the BCCI and the franchise would need to handhold him in terms of showing him the right way so that his temperament stays intact. Because sport is not only about physical skill, it is also about mental toughness. And definitely, we will do our bit to make sure that the kind of skill set he has allows him to perform for India for many, many years to come,” Dhumal told The Times of India.
Dhumal stressed the importance of mental strength alongside cricketing skill and said young players must learn to handle failures during their careers. He added that Sooryavanshi’s performances for both Rajasthan and India U-19 showed maturity beyond his age.
“Like any great player, he will also go through ups and downs. That is the uniqueness of sport. He will fail. He will go down. But this is what sport trains you for. You get up and give a better performance in the next game. That is very integral to preparing you for life. Life will never be a one-way street where you only rise. I am sure the boy, given his performances throughout this season and as part of the U-19 team, would have seen many failures. But in the next game, he would have tried to perform even better and help his team win,” he continued.
“Vaibhav embodies IPL’s tagline, which is, ‘where talent meets opportunity.’ That boy is something else, isn’t he? Talent had always been there, but how do they get the opportunity? That opportunity, that platform, has been granted by the IPL,” he added.
Sooryavanshi will next feature in the IPL 2026 Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 28 in Mullanpur.
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