‘Don’t tag him as next Sachin’ – Dinesh Karthik cautions against overburdening Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

Former India wicketkeeper and current Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batting coach Dinesh Karthik does not want the world to portray Vaibhav Sooryavanshi as the next Sachin Tendulkar just because of his achievements at the tender age of 15. 

Sooryavanshi is enjoying an excellent 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, having scored 579 runs from 13 matches at a strike-rate of 236.32. His exploits in the tournament at the age of just 15 have brought in obvious comparisons to a young Sachin Tendulkar, who made his international debut aged 16 against the might of Pakistan back in 1989. 

Karthik, however, does not want the cricketing fraternity to burden Sooryavanshi with such comparisons, as times have changed when Tendulkar made his debut compared to how the world is right now. The former wicketkeeper believes the Rajasthan Royals prodigy will have more off-field challenges due to all the other things has come the way of a cricketer which aren’t in their control. 

“What Vaibhav is doing is very special, but what I don’t want the people to do is tag him as the next Sachin because he is just 15 years old and doing what he is doing. I think what Sachin did was extraordinary. Vaibhav’s challenges will be completely different. Sachin’s challenges would have been as much on the field as they were off the field, but Vaibhav’s challenges will definitely be more off-field, because he possesses a lot of cricketing skills, dealing with everything that comes outside the sport,” Dinesh Karthik said on the Quest Talk podcast by iQOO, via India Today.

Sooryavanshi’s exploits in the IPL have seen him get picked in India A’s squad for the first time in his career for their tri-series in Sri Lanka. The left-handed batter has also been touted by many to get picked in India’s senior side for their upcoming T20I tour to Ireland. He has already made a game for himself on the international stage in youth cricket, scoring a magnificent 175 off just 80 deliveries in the 2025 U19 World Cup final against England.