15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi dismissed for 18 on youngest men's T20 captaincy debut

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, aged 15, was dismissed for 18 on his captaincy debut for Bihar against Saurashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Saturday, a match in which he became the youngest player to captain a men's T20 side.

Sooryavanshi had been a focus of attention after the Bihar state association named him captain for the opening two matches of the campaign and won the toss, electing to bat. The BCCI Domestic account tweeted: "Toss Update Bihar have won the toss and elected to bat first against Saurashtra Vaibhav Sooryavanshi takes charge by becoming the youngest captain in Men's T20 history at just 15 Scorecard https://t.co/gfZV5ZjIph #SMAT | @mflone_ https://t.co/23RFmME9fA".

He began his innings aggressively, striking a boundary off the first ball he faced and attempting to capitalise on the powerplay. That momentum was checked when a mix-up between the openers resulted in Alok Kumar being run out. Ayush Loharuka replaced Kumar and started finding the boundary at the other end.

Sooryavanshi’s innings ended when Chetan Sakariya induced a mistimed shot that flew into the bowler’s hands, and he returned to the pavilion having scored 18. At the time of writing Bihar were 35 for 2 in 4.5 overs.

The 15-year-old’s return to domestic cricket follows a busy year with the senior Indian team: he made his T20I debut against England in July aged 15 and has since played in 10 matches for India. His international T20 record in those appearances stands at 295 runs at a strike rate of 185.53, including two half-centuries and a highest score of 81.

Sooryavanshi’s most productive T20I series came against Zimbabwe, where he scored 50, 20 and 81 in three matches. He also scored 38 against Sri Lanka at the Asian Games and finished India’s New Zealand tour with 45 off 19 in Wellington, an innings that followed a match in which he made four runs.

The Bihar captaincy stint is brief as Sooryavanshi has been named in India’s 15-member squad for the ACC Men’s Rising Stars Asia Cup, to be played in the 50-over format in Doha from November 19 to 29, with Tilak Varma leading the side and Abhishek Sharma among the named players. India A begin their campaign against Nepal on November 20 before facing Pakistan A and the UAE in the group stage.