Sooryavanshi earns maiden India A call-up as Tilak Varma leads ODI tri-series squad
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's 2026 keeps speeding up. The 15-year-old earned his maiden India A call-up on Thursday, picked in the 15-member squad for next month's ODI tri-series in Sri Lanka against Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A. Tilak Varma will captain the side. Riyan Parag is his deputy.
The tournament runs in Dambulla from June 9 to June 21, slotting in just over a week after the IPL 2026 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium on May 31. Each side plays the other two twice in the round-robin before the top two meet for the title.
From U-19 record book to Rajasthan Royals' top order
Sooryavanshi forced this conversation back in February with 175 off 80 balls against England in the Under-19 World Cup final at Harare Sports Club. Fifteen fours, fifteen sixes, a 55-ball century, a 71-ball 150, the most sixes by any batter in a Youth ODI innings, and a tournament tally of 439 runs at a strike rate of 169.49. Player of the tournament, naturally.
The IPL did not faze him. Opening with Yashasvi Jaiswal for Rajasthan Royals all season, Sooryavanshi has 440 runs in 11 innings at a strike rate north of 236, the kind of return that makes selectors stop pretending a young batter is "one for the future". He has done that thing teenagers rarely do at this level, which is keep producing after the novelty wore off.
A pathway, not a coronation
The India A call-up is the BCCI's standard route. White-ball tri-series, A-team Tests later in the summer in Galle, then the senior selectors look at it again. The Galle red-ball squad has not been named yet.
The call-up settles a smaller argument too. IPL form alone gets a 15-year-old onto the next rung, when the form is this consistent and the U-19 numbers sit behind it. Sri Lanka A's attack will not be the IPL, and Dambulla's pitches reward patience more than power, so the tri-series is a useful test of whether 236 of strike rate survives outside the impact-sub league.
The wider squad
Tilak Varma was always going to lead this group. He has 101, 57 and an unbeaten 75 off his last three IPL hits and is the one young batter currently doing it twice a week in the senior league. Parag as vice-captain is the surprise call, given how patchy Rajasthan's season has been around him. Priyansh Arya, Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Harsh Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh, Anshul Kamboj and Arshad Khan complete the outfield group, with Prabhsimran Singh and Kumar Kushagra as the two wicketkeepers.
For Sooryavanshi the immediate question is the IPL run-in. Rajasthan have ground to make up before the playoffs and need every innings he can give them. The India A squad assembles after the final on May 31, with the tri-series opener nine days later.
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