Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Fails to Impress, Falls for 8 in Duleep Trophy Quarter-final

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's Duleep Trophy quarter-final outing ended in disappointment as the young batter managed only 8 runs off 6 balls for East Zone against North East Zone in Bengaluru on Sunday, August 23, 2026.

Playing as East Zone's vice-captain, Sooryavanshi struck back-to-back boundaries off pacer Bishworjit Konthoujam in the second over before being dismissed off the final ball of that same over. He threw his bat at a back-of-length delivery outside off stump and was caught at gully, ending a brief stay at the crease.

Watch his dismissal video here -

Sooryavanshi's early exit raised questions about his readiness for red-ball cricket after a strong showing in white-ball formats.

Dravid on balancing formats for young players

India's former head coach Rahul Dravid addressed the balance between formats for young players like Sooryavanshi, emphasising the importance of allowing talented cricketers to develop across all forms of the game.

"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," Dravid was quoted as saying by NDTV Sports.

Dravid stressed the broader importance of Test cricket and the need for players to commit to multiple formats. He believes that the survival and growth of Test cricket depends on having players capable of performing across all three formats of the game.

"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," Dravid added.

Sooryavanshi's Recent form in white-ball

His international debut came at age 15 during a tour of England, where he scored under 20 runs across 3 innings as India lost the series 1-4. He became India's youngest international cricketer when he debuted in the second T20I at Manchester against England at age 15 years and 99 days, breaking Sachin Tendulkar's previous record.

His recent form in white-ball cricket has been considerably stronger. In 6 T20Is, Sooryavanshi has accumulated 193 runs at an average of 32.16 with a strike rate of 189.21, including 2 fifties. During India's tour of Zimbabwe, he topped the run-charts with 151 runs across 3 innings at an average of 50.33 with a strike rate of 196.10, including a score of 81.

He won the Player of the Series award during that tour, which India won under Shreyas Iyer's captaincy following earlier losses to Ireland and England.