‘He’s so famous’: Jos Buttler explains why Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s hype is bigger than Sachin Tendulkar’s

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Young Sachin Tendulkar (Image Agency) Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s much awaited debut in India now seems to be around the corner. The 15-year-old batting prodigy has earned a place in India’s squad for the upcoming two-match T20I series against Ireland later this month and is also set to travel with the team for a five-match white-ball series in England in July.Whether his first international appearance comes in Ireland or England, Sooryavanshi is all set to make history as the youngest player ever to represent India in international cricket.Even before the tour begins, excitement is already building around the teenager in England. After a remarkable IPL 2026 campaign that left the selectors with little option but to quickly slot him into the national set-up, Sooryavanshi has become one of the most talked about young cricketers in the game. The English media and cricket talk shows have already identified him as one of the key attractions of the upcoming Indian tour.Among those who have closely followed Sooryavanshi’s rise is former England captain Jos Buttler. The veteran wicketkeeper-palter has spoken about the teenager on several occasions on his YouTube podcast For The Love of Cricket, which he co-hosts with Stuart Broad.Buttler said in the last episode that Sooryavanshi fully deserved his opportunity at the international level.“15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi got a well-deserved call-up in an incredibly strong Indian side. So strong that they dropped their World Cup-winning captain. He was a serious, serious player. And even though his form wasn’t up to par, the next World Cup is in 2028, so they wanted that change. They picked Shreyas and Who for Punja Iy. Kings, his numbers with the bat were great,” Buttler said.The former England captain also recalled a discussion with Gujarat Titans assistant coach Ashish Kapoor about the huge attention surrounding Sooryavanshi and whether it mirrored the excitement that surrounded Sachin Tendulkar during his teenage years.Tendulkar famously broke into the Indian team at the age of 16 during the tour of Pakistan in 1989. However, Buttler pointed out that the modern digital era has made Sooryavanshi’s emergence very different.“Ashish Kapoor, one of our assistant coaches in Gujarat, and I were talking as all the hype around Vaibhav reached a fever pitch in India. I asked him how it compared to Sachin because he’s from that generation and grew up watching him.“He said the real difference is that everyone has seen Vaibhav. He doesn’t play international cricket, yet he’s already so famous because of social media. Everyone watched him bat and saw what he did in the biggest T20 tournament in the world.“When Sachin was coming through, people were reading about him in the papers. It was all whispers and stories about this extraordinary talent that you just had to watch. Unless you were at the ground or happened to catch him live on TV, you didn’t really see him. There were no event packages, no social media and none of the players coming into contact today.“Vaibhav is already incredibly well known. He was the MVP of the tournament, scored more than 700 runs at a strike rate of over 200. Any player who puts up those numbers is chosen. He absolutely deserves his place.”Currently, Sooryavanshi is part of the India A team that is competing in the ongoing one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka. After fulfilling these commitments, he will head to Ireland for the T20I series starting on June 26 before joining the Indian team for the much-anticipated tour of England.