Vaibhav Sooryavanshi predicted to surpass Virat Kohli & Sachin Tendulkar with BCCI handling asterisk

There’s no doubt that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s a generational talent. No normal cricketer can smash the world’s best bowlers with ease at 15. In fact, Sachin Tendulkar was the last successful teenager. Everyone knows what he went on to achieve, but there are many who debuted at a younger age than Tendulkar and vanished into thin air. No one remembers them anymore.

Sooryavanshi in Tendulkar & Kohli’s league

There’s an inkling that Sooryavanshi won’t be one of those. He belongs to the former camp, not the latter. It’s not just any random cricket enthusiast who claims so, but one of the greatest fast bowlers the sport has ever seen. Dale Steyn, who battled against Tendulkar and his heir, Virat Kohli, believes Sooryavanshi isn’t just here to stay but to dominate.

In fact, he believes that the young prodigy will be a bigger cricket superstar than both Tendulkar and Kohli combined. Considering he’s just 15 and will most likely make his international debut against Ireland or England in the next couple of weeks, Sooryavanshi can play international cricket for 20 years.

“Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is different gravy, man. He’s better than most international players right now. He is a boy wonder, a treasure for Indian cricket,” Steyn said during an interaction facilitated by SA20. “You think of guys like Sachin and Virat, this kid is going to explode. He’s going to be bigger than both of them put together at the end of his career,” he added.

Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli are the highest run-scorers in international cricket history

BCCI’s responsibility

However, Steyn believes something can stop Sooryavanshi. It won’t be cricketing abilities but fame, money or power. He’s already a superstar and will have many ‘yes men’ around him. Now, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) must shoulder the responsibility of him not straying off the path. If he manages to stay focused, the sky’s the limit. But it can all go wrong in a blink if he starts focusing on something other than cricket at such a young age.

“I would caution how you manage him and how you look after him because with great responsibility comes great reward. But there’s a big threat there that you could lose him at some point if you don’t look after him well enough,” said Steyn.

No weaknesses in T20 cricket?

In the recent Indian Premier League (IPL) season, we saw bowlers being terrified of Sooryavanshi. In the two Playoffs matches, he scored 97 and 96. Does Steyn think there’s a way to stop him, especially in T20 cricket? The South African quick is a believer that a bowler can’t go into the game fearing Sooryavanshi. He’s already lost the contest if that happens.

Steyn thinks intimidating him with fast and short stuff could be the way to go. But Sooryavanshi had a strike rate of 318.57 against the short-pitched delivery in IPL 2026. If Steyn can’t figure out how to challenge him, most bowlers won’t either.

“I think KG (Rabada) bowled well to him, where you test him up here. You’ve got to test him up upstairs. He’s still young. He’s only 14, and if you can throw a little bit of fear factor into the game, cricket is a fear factor game. If you go into the game scared, if you’re fearing somebody, just fear bowling to them or fear facing them, it can make you do silly things. It can make your mind do silly things. So, the short ball towards him is a good option,” Steyn added.

The post Vaibhav Sooryavanshi predicted to surpass Virat Kohli & Sachin Tendulkar with BCCI handling asterisk appeared first on Inside Sport India.