‘He deserves his place’: AB de Villiers backs Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s bold appeal to voters

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (Image credit: ICC) NEW DELHI: South African batting legend AB de Villiers has weighed in on India’s decision to hand teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi his first international call-up, calling the selectors’ move the “right decision” and a “brave decision”.The 15-year-old made history on Saturday when he was named in India’s squads for the tour of Ireland and England and the Asian Games, becoming the youngest player ever to be selected for the national team and eclipsing the mark set by Sachin Tendulkar in 1989. Speaking at an event in Mumbai, de Villiers said the selectors deserve credit for resisting the temptation to opt for experience.“It’s definitely the right call from the selectors. Well done to them for taking a bold decision. It would be easy to say he’s still too young and not ready and go for more experience. He’s broken that door down and deserves his place in the Indian T20 team, so I’m happy for him,” said the former South African captain.

“Undoubtedly, Sooryavanshi has talent”

While de Villiers refrained from making definitive predictions about Sooryavanshi’s red-ball future, he expressed confidence that the youngster has the skills to succeed across formats if he chooses to go that route.“Yeah, he’s an amazing talent. The red ball thing I absolutely can’t answer. I think he can if he wants to, but there’s your answer and there’s also the big question of does he really want to? Time will tell. There’s no doubt he’s got the talent and the ability to do it. It’s not always going to be easy and I’ve said that a few times,” de Villiers.The batsman acknowledged that Test cricket will present a different set of challenges but backed the Bihar-born prodigy to overcome them.“If he decides to play red ball cricket there will be some challenges but he has the ability and the ability to work through it and in my opinion I hope he will try to play Test cricket but I doubt it. We will see in the future,” he added.Sooryavanshi’s rise was nothing short of extraordinary. The Rajasthan Royals opener dominated IPL 2026 with 776 runs at a staggering 237.30 and smashed a record 72 sixes.

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