Dravid: Need players like Sooryavanshi to play all formats for Test cricket to grow

[vvvslaxman]

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/rahul-dravid-need-players-like-vaibhav-sooryavanshi-to-play-all-formats-for-test-cricket-to-grow-1550983

 

Dravid: Need players like Sooryavanshi to play all formats for Test cricket to grow
Dravid believes Sooryavanshi's development needs to be balanced between the white-ball and red-ball formats

Rahul Dravid, the former India captain, believes Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's development needs to be carefully balanced, with the 15-year-old given enough exposure to white-ball cricket without losing sight of the red-ball game.

"I think you always have to find that balance," Dravid told Cricinfo at an event in London to unveil the ETPL, where he co-owns the franchise Dublin Guardians. "And I think it's a great thing that Vaibhav is getting the experience of playing some white-ball cricket through the IPL in India, but he's also having the time to go back and play red-ball cricket in the Indian domestic system and grow his red-ball career.

"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."

 

That balance will be tested as Sooryavanshi embarks on a new domestic season that kicks off with him featuring for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy, the zonal red-ball competition. Dravid, who coached Sooryavanshi at Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025, believes the opportunity to play a run of red-ball cricket will be particularly valuable for a teenager who has had limited continuity in the format.

"The good thing is he's going to take some time, he's going to need some experience, he's going to get an opportunity to play a lot of red-ball cricket," Dravid said. "He's not played as much red-ball cricket as probably white-ball cricket.

"He's only 15 and I think you've got to just give him some time and you've got to be patient with him. He's obviously been such a success straightaway, right, but he's going to go through his ups and downs and I think people are going to have to be patient with him."

Sooryavanshi has so far featured in just eight first-class games for an average of 17.25. All those games, though, were sandwiched into a calendar at a time when Sooryavanshi was pitching for a berth in the India Under-19 set-up, giving him no continuity.

From that perspective, the Duleep Trophy should give him a run of two straight games at the very least, or three if East Zone make the final. That could potentially be followed by two further opportunities when India A host Australia A in two unofficial Tests in September.

"I think he's going to have some success but he also might have periods where it probably doesn't work out well for him," Dravid cautioned. "But let's all remember he's only 15 and he has a long way to go. So Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, by not playing in T20 competitions all over the world, is actually playing in the red-ball Indian domestic competition. He's growing, he's getting better at red-ball skills.

"Hopefully someday if he does well and performs well like he has in white-ball cricket, he might become a red-ball player for India. And how exciting that would be for the world game as well."

 

[vvvslaxman]

Now we are talking !! Make Test cricket great again.

[govinda]

He is a tulla. Will fail badly in sena

[zen]

If he can replicate Gilchrist, playing in the lower middle order, it will be entertaining to watch him and Pant batting together. 
 

 

[vvvslaxman]

8 minutes ago, govinda said:

He is a tulla. Will fail badly in sena

 

He already made u19 centuries in Australia in youth Tests.

Edited August 22 by vvvslaxman

[zen]

On potential (and long term development strategy), he can be played in the rotational slot given to the likes of Jurel, Sarfaraz, etc. 

 

 

[tapandrun]

Why Ind experts and ex-players can nt understand the days of all format players are gone specially batters.

 

Bat-swing are diff, slot selection is diff, t20 rewards risk takers, test rewards conservative and less risk taking. These are 2 sports now.

 

Its like saying f1 cars into cross-cntry rally. F1 cars have strong engine 4 wheels, good speeds so it will do well in cross-cntry rallies.

 

 

[singhvivek141]

18 minutes ago, tapandrun said:

Why Ind experts and ex-players can nt understand the days of all format players are gone specially batters.

 

Bat-swing are diff, slot selection is diff, t20 rewards risk takers, test rewards conservative and less risk taking. These are 2 sports now.

 

Its like saying f1 cars into cross-cntry rally. F1 cars have strong engine 4 wheels, good speeds so it will do well in cross-cntry rallies.

 

 

 

Its a typical "we will adjust" attitude.

 

Also comes up with laziness, finding multi format players is a hassle for selectors as they have to sit through games and study their strengths and weakness.

 

Instead they can use the time to tour in foreign countries with their families and just see IPL and finals/semis of other domestic tournaments. 

 

[putrevus]

No cricketer coming thru will want to play only t20s. Guys like Vaibhav are very important for test cricket, they will bring excitement.There is no reason why he cannot play all formats.

 

The formats will decide if the young players are good enough or not.Good players will adapt. Guy like Vaibhav once he starts playing other formats will understand if he plays a dot ball it is not end of the world, team will benefit more by him staying at the crease. 

 

 

 

[zen]

Why are some folks so eager to lock players to one format? 
 

Let the player decide which format he wants to target. 

[BacktoCricaddict]

2 hours ago, govinda said:

He is a tulla. Will fail badly in sena

He may adapt. He's not even 16 yo

[putrevus]

29 minutes ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

He may adapt. He's not even 16 yo

He will adapt, he is very young and already proved he can dominate against best of the bowlers  in India.How many 16 year olds have done that, he was the best player in IPL by a long distance.

 

Captaincy turmoil  and coaching nonsense screwed up his international debut.

 

Guy like David Warner was the best player in all formats for Aussies in last decade.Attacking players can sustain in all formats if they do minor adjustments mentally.

Edited August 22 by putrevus

[Suhaan]

2 hours ago, tapandrun said:

Why Ind experts and ex-players can nt understand the days of all format players are gone specially batters.

 

Bat-swing are diff, slot selection is diff, t20 rewards risk takers, test rewards conservative and less risk taking. These are 2 sports now.

 

Its like saying f1 cars into cross-cntry rally. F1 cars have strong engine 4 wheels, good speeds so it will do well in cross-cntry rallies.

 

 

They won't understand,they want each eyecandy play all formats 

[Lone Wolf]

He will nail middle order spots in Test match cricket.  Hopefully they don't push him out as an opener.

 

[tapandrun]

Test cricket cannot achieve mainstream global growth because its five-day format is a multi-day endurance niche competing in a modern entertainment market built for short attention spans. Much like the Tour de France, cross-country rallies, or marathon races, the longest format appeals strictly to a dedicated, niche audience, whereas broad global expansion belongs entirely to "sprint" formats like the 100m dash or T20 cricket, which deliver definitive results within a predictable viewing window. 

 

Former players and experts live in an echo chamber of nostalgia and technical artistry, failing to realize that sports are a leisure activity competing directly against movies, streaming, and gaming for a finite time budget; expecting modern fans to watch a five-day match is equivalent to asking them to watch an 8-hour movie, regardless of how good the quality is.

 

Even relatively fast sports like Formula 1 suffer from attention limits, with casual fans consuming snippet-based highlights and key moments rather than watching every live lap.

 

Furthermore, the purist argument that hyper-aggressive batsmen can "save" Test cricket by making it entertaining is a tactical illusion; while explosive past legends like Sehwag, Gilchrist, or Jayasuriya provided thrilling highlight reels, their high-risk approaches frequently caused early collapses that forced the remaining team into hours of slow, defensive rebuilding.

This fatal flaw was explicitly exposed by England’s "Bazball" strategy, which thrived on flat pitches against weaker bowling sides but disintegrated into reckless collapses when encountering elite bowling on moving, unpredictable wickets. Ultimately, while white-ball cricket rewards raw bat speed under favorable rule.

 

So there will be niche audiences for test cricket and some viewership/interest spike here and there.

Crkt got popular with odis not tests and its expanding due to t20s 

 

Also experts have to leave vaibhav out of each conversations, its not like he is saviour of cricket they are putting additional pressure on him. Let him play his cricket

 

 

 

Edited August 22 by tapandrun

[vvvslaxman]

1 hour ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

He may adapt. He's not even 16 yo

He already showed that at age group level. He has displayed all gears except Pujara gear of ultra slow. Zimbabwe match was an indication how he seamlessly adapted and reacted. People who just watched Vaibhav in IPL may have that opinion. But if you have watched him in all the age group matches you could see how he played at different tempo in different matches.

[vvvslaxman]

3 minutes ago, tapandrun said:

Test cricket cannot achieve mainstream global growth because its five-day format is a multi-day endurance niche competing in a modern entertainment market built for short attention spans. Much like the Tour de France, cross-country rallies, or marathon races, the longest format appeals strictly to a dedicated, niche audience, whereas broad global expansion belongs entirely to "sprint" formats like the 100m dash or T20 cricket, which deliver definitive results within a predictable viewing window. 

 

Former players and experts live in an echo chamber of nostalgia and technical artistry, failing to realize that sports are a leisure activity competing directly against movies, streaming, and gaming for a finite time budget; expecting modern fans to watch a five-day match is equivalent to asking them to watch an 8-hour movie, regardless of how good the quality is.

 

Even relatively fast sports like Formula 1 suffer from attention limits, with casual fans consuming snippet-based highlights and key moments rather than watching every live lap.

 

Furthermore, the purist argument that hyper-aggressive batsmen can "save" Test cricket by making it entertaining is a tactical illusion; while explosive past legends like Sehwag, Gilchrist, or Jayasuriya provided thrilling highlight reels, their high-risk approaches frequently caused early collapses that forced the remaining team into hours of slow, defensive rebuilding.

This fatal flaw was explicitly exposed by England’s "Bazball" strategy, which thrived on flat pitches against weaker bowling sides but disintegrated into reckless collapses when encountering elite bowling on moving, unpredictable wickets. Ultimately, while white-ball cricket rewards raw bat speed under favorable rule.

 

So there will be niche audiences for test cricket and some viewership/interest spike here and there.

Crkt got popular with odis not tests and its expanding due to t20s 

 

 

 

 

Harry Brook has a  staggering test match strike rate of 86 at an average of 56. Ben duckett strike rate is 87.  Many guys don't even have that in ODIs. Warner took liking to his tests after having conversation with Sehwag's simple concept of how aggression can be less risky in Tests.

Edited August 22 by vvvslaxman

[tapandrun]

2 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

Harry Brook has a  staggering test match strike rate of 86 at an average of 56. Ben duckett strike rate is 87.  Many guys don't even have that in ODIs. Warner took liking to his tests after having conversation with Sehwag's simple concept of how aggression can be less risky in Tests.

 

and is that helping the test cricket to grow ????

[putrevus]

Nobody is forcing anyone to watch test cricket, fans of test cricket will continue to watch it. BCCI has done very well to sustain test cricket and longer formats even in domestic cricket.

 

Boards like WI, SL cannot even sustain t20 formats on their own without getting aid from ICC.Two tier struture will be implemented soone than later in test cricket.

 

Ashes is not going anywhere, so are Border Gavaskar  and India-England series. Ex players like Dravid who has been a coach for India and also as coach for Franchise have better understanding than a common fan with myopic understanding of things.

 

Young Indian players are still wanting to play test cricket which is very good sign. Guys like Vaibhav are going to future of Indian cricket in all formats.

Edited August 22 by putrevus

[putrevus]

2 minutes ago, tapandrun said:

 

and is that helping the test cricket to grow ????

Who said it has to grow to other smaller nations. It needs to sustain in the countries that are currently playing .