'We didn't keep Sachin Tendulkar waiting': Growing calls for Vaibhav Suryavanshi's early India call-up

India’s Under-19 World Cup triumph successful 2026 had galore heroes, but 1 sanction towered supra the remainder — Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. In the last against England successful Harare, the 14-year-old prodigy delivered a breathtaking show that near the cricketing satellite stunned.

Smashing 175 disconnected conscionable 80 balls, Sooryavanshi powered India to their sixth U19 World Cup rubric and rewrote grounds books successful the process, including registering the highest idiosyncratic people successful a U19 World Cup final.The sheer audacity of his strokeplay, combined with a increasing database of centuries astatine age-group level, has triggered a acquainted statement successful Indian cricket circles: should generational talents beryllium fast-tracked?

Among those voicing beardown enactment for the thought is Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who drew a nonstop parallel betwixt Suryavanshi and 1 of the game’s top icons — Sachin Tendulkar.“Vaibhav Sooryavanshi deserves to beryllium fast-tracked into higher honours. The past clip we had a 14-year-old genius astatine the crease, his sanction was Sachin Tendulkar. And we didn't support him waiting long,” Tharoor wrote connected X (formerly Twitter).

The examination is not without humanities weight. Tendulkar, aft piling up runs successful schoolhouse and home cricket, was ushered into the Indian squad successful 1989 astatine conscionable 16 years of age, making his planetary debut against Pakistan.

His accelerated ascent went connected to redefine Indian cricket for implicit 2 decades.Yet, dissimilar Tendulkar’s era, Sooryavanshi faces a non-negotiable roadblock. Despite the clamour astir him, the Bihar-born left-hander cannot correspond India astatine elder planetary level until March 2026. The obstacle lies successful the ICC’s Minimum Age Policy, introduced successful 2020 to support young cricketers’ carnal and intelligence well-being.

Under the regulation, a subordinate indispensable beryllium astatine slightest 15 years aged to diagnostic successful planetary cricket.Born connected 27 March 2011, Sooryavanshi was inactive technically 14 astatine the clip of India’s World Cup triumph successful February 2026. As a result, careless of however galore blistering 36-ball centuries helium piles up for Bihar oregon however galore established IPL bowlers helium dismantles for the Rajasthan Royals, the nationalist selectors person nary prime but to wait.For now, adjacent with influential voices similar Tharoor echoing the Sachin precedent, Sooryavanshi’s India imagination remains connected intermission — astatine slightest until the calendar turns to 27 March 2026.