Rahul Dravid on Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s buzz in the 2025 Indian Premier League: “Cannot entirely avoid criticism or media attention”

Rahul Dravid, the famous cricketer and head coach of the Rajasthan Royals, discussed the focus on Vaibhav Suryavanshi during the 2025 Indian Premier League. Following the young player’s spectacular 101(38) against GT, the head coach revealed his feelings and agreed that the young player will receive attention. Dravid believed that a young player like him would experience both success and disappointment, and he felt the need to surround himself with a solid support system.

He mentioned former players like Kamlesh Nagakoti, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Rishabh Pant and pointed out that certain players require more time to establish themselves than others. “During my period, I witnessed several gifted young people, like Pant, Shubman, Jaiswal, Nagarkoti, and Khaleel. It takes longer for some people, while it goes fairly well for others,” Dravid continued.

“You can’t completely escape the media’s scrutiny and criticism of him. I think you have to acknowledge that you can’t control everything. The goal is to guide him through it and create a solid support network for him. You have to deal with it if you want to play cricket in India. We all understand that he would experience both success and failure,” Dravid stated through the JioStar Press Room.

He has a great chance of winning this tournament: Rahul Dravid

The former Indian player believed that Vaibhav’s strength was his high back lift, hand speed, and length adjustment. He commended the young batter for having sufficient force to draw the ball. He asserted that with some batting practice, Suryavanshi may perform well in the IPL.

“Vaibhav’s hand speed, extremely high backlift, and rapid length adjustment are what give him his strength. Vaibhav can pull anything or anything that is fractionally short, as you can see. His ability to make those shots comes instinctively to him. The Indore native continued, “We thought he could perform really well in this tournament with a little bit of work.”

The Samastipur-born player spent three to four months working with RR prior to the IPL 2025 auctions, according to the T20 World Cup-winning coach. According to Dravid, the 14-year-old had the opportunity to work with the Indian cricket team’s players as well as the coaches and support personnel at RR.

“In the three to four months before the competition, we had three or four camps. He was getting to know the coaches and the support staff. He got to know all of the Indian players and the backroom crew, and we made it very evident that he needed to feel at ease when the entire team showed up,” he said in closing.