Vineeth’s 87 helps India U-19 seal series against Australia, he recalls TNPL crowd experience

In Rajkot on Monday, India under-19 batsman Vineeth scored a gritty 87 as India sealed the series against Australia. The report was published on September 22, 2026, at 10:06 pm IST.

Vineeth did not play for Tamil Nadu at under-14 or under-16 level but earned places in the Vinoo Mankad and Cooch Behar Trophy squads. He finished last season as the Vinoo Mankad Trophy’s top run-scorer with 488 runs, attended the High Performance Camp at CoE and toured Sri Lanka with India under-19, where he recorded a hundred in a youth ODI; he is part of India u-19’s series against Australia.

Vineeth said the Tamil Nadu Premier League gave him his first encounter with a large crowd. “When I went on to play the TNPL for the Dindigul Dragons this year, it was a whole new experience because the crowd was different. So playing in front of a crowd and under the lights for the first time was unbelievable,” Vineeth told The Hindu.

He initially served as a ball-boy and water carrier before breaking into matchday squads, and credited senior players for helping him adjust. “They said whether the crowd comes or not, we are going to play cricket. That is our main part. The crowd is just an add-on,” he recalled of advice from R. Ashwin, B. Indrajith and Sandeep Warrier; Vineeth featured in three games for the Dindigul Dragons, scoring 82 runs.

Vineeth’s cricketing journey began in Chennai when he started playing at seven, encouraged by his father, who works for the Southern Railway RPF. His elder brother, K. Veeraviswa, who played Tamil Nadu under-19, was another influence on his development.

A self-declared Virat Kohli fan, Vineeth described how he handles setbacks and missed milestones. “I don’t try to hide my mistakes. I try to understand what I have to improve and what I can take from the learnings,” the 18-year-old said.

Outside the game he listens to songs and keeps a diary to process each day’s play. “The game is over, the day is over,” he said, adding: “The next day, we have to start afresh.” Match starts at 9 a.m.

Photo Credit: Shayan Acharya