IPL 2025: Vaibhav Suryavanshi will have to keep working hard, says Rahul Dravid

Jaipur: When Vaibhav Suryavanshi announced his arrival with a jaw-dropping 38-ball 101, a chuffed Rahul Dravid forgot about his injured leg and stood up beaming to applaud the 14-year-old. On Wednesday, putting Vaibhav’s knock in perspective, Dravid said that the 14-year-old’s ability to remain unfazed by the occasion was what stood out.
“You don’t get to see (knocks like that) with people who are so young. The range of shots he showed, he is only going to develop and get better. Nobody is saying he is a finished article. He will have to keep working hard. No one should be in a rush to proclaim him as something he is not. He is what he is, an exceptionally talented young player,” Dravid said during the Star Sports Press Room show.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel.
The former India captain and coach said that the Royals coaching staff had given Vaibhav the freedom to express himself. “He is going to have his share of ups and downs. The nature of the T20 format is such that he is going to have some days where things won’t work out. From our side, we encourage him to play the game he enjoys. It’s important that we allow him to express himself and as he goes on, there will be lessons he will learn and mistakes he will make. He will refine himself and mould himself as time goes on. But as of now, from our side it’s all about letting him go out and have some fun and soak in everything,” the head coach said.
Now that Vaibhav is the talk of the town, how does one protect him from the intense public glare? “He can’t completely avoid experiencing what’s going on around him. A lot of things will be beyond his and our control. We can’t control how much people are going to talk about him. It’s about recognising that this is what happens and helping him navigate all of this attention and still allowing him that space to be a youngster. But I think that is part of being a cricketer in this country,” Dravid said.