Sooryavanshi's red-ball test at Duleep Trophy final
The 15-year-old scored 44 then was stumped for eight in Chennai, as his modest first-class average sharpens debate over his future in Test cricket.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi walked out at Chepauk Stadium in Chennai on 2026-09-10 for the Duleep Trophy final between East Zone and South Zone, with 12,000 fans queuing since dawn for free tickets to watch him bat. He was out for 44 off 37 balls, caught at deep midwicket off a pull shot. A chunk of the crowd began leaving their seats within the hour.
The 15-year-old left-hander is the most talked-about batter in the world at present, but his record in the format on display in Chennai tells a different story to his white-ball reputation. Going into the final, his first-class average stood at a shade above 23. In the second innings, as East Zone chased the win, he danced down the pitch and was stumped for eight.
The match itself finished with East Zone posting a total of 708, and the final was moved to Chennai from its original venue at the national academy near Bengaluru specifically to accommodate the numbers wanting to see Sooryavanshi in person.
None of the two innings settles anything about him as a red-ball batter. What they do is sharpen the question hanging over Indian cricket: whether a player built for white-ball speed and Indian Premier League heroics with Rajasthan Royals can, or even needs to, adapt to the format that still carries the game's greatest weight of history.
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