Ishan Kishan and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: A Memorable Duleep Trophy Final
In a corner of the East Zone dressing room, long after the winning moment had passed and the Duleep Trophy 2026/27 was safely theirs, the loudest sound wasn’t celebration. It was laughter.
Ishan Kishan, fresh from a final for the ages, sat next to his 15-year-old deputy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and turned a title-winning partnership into a running joke about Decision Review System calls and stolen credit.
A final to remember, a knock for the ages
On the field, Kishan had been ruthless. As captain against South Zone, he piled up more than 350 runs across the two innings, including a staggering 270 in the first. It was the kind of statement innings that bends a final to one man’s will and leaves selectors and opponents scrambling for answers. Player of the Match was a formality.
Yet when the cameras rolled for BCCI’s post-match video, he chose not to talk about his own numbers first. He chose Vaibhav.
With a grin, Kishan claimed the teenager had quietly walked away with all the glory for East Zone’s successful DRS calls.
“Yeh sab review mein credit le hi liya hai har jagah,” he joked, explaining how he would be ready to take a review, only for Vaibhav to stride in confidently and effectively claim the moment. The punchline was simple: online chatter would then hail the young deputy. “Vaibhav! My goodness! Vaibhav is the one!”
The captain’s tone said it all. This was not a senior pulling rank. This was a leader enjoying the rise of a kid who already behaves like he belongs.
The deputy fires back
Vaibhav didn’t sit quietly and smile. He shot back.
“Aur jab field ke bahar jaa rahe the tab kon le raha tha review? Yeh bhi toh bata dijiye!” he quipped, reminding everyone that when they were heading off the field, he was the one taking charge of the reviews.
The exchange underlined what has been building in this East Zone setup: a relaxed, secure environment where a 15-year-old can tease a senior India international and captain, and the captain loves him more for it.
Kishan quickly shifted from banter to admiration. He called Vaibhav a “future captain, maybe,” and went beyond the usual praise of talent and technique. What stood out for him was the teenager’s care for the group.
It wasn’t about runs or wickets. It was about how Vaibhav looked after everyone in the team, junior or senior. Kishan even caught himself mid-sentence while referring to him as a junior, correcting it with a laugh: “Achha, junior toh tu hi hua, sorry, sorry.”
That slip said plenty. In this dressing room, hierarchy is earned, not assumed.
A young leader in the making
For all the joking, Kishan’s assessment of Vaibhav’s potential carried weight. He spoke of hoping the youngster would become “more dangerous” than he already is and insisted this performance, this tournament, would not be a one-off. In his eyes, Vaibhav is at the start of something, not enjoying a lucky spike.
“I think it's not going to be his first or the last,” Kishan said, confident that the teenager would keep performing at this level and beyond.
Coming from a player who just bossed a Duleep Trophy final with a double-century-plus, that kind of endorsement lands differently. It felt less like flattery, more like a captain marking out the next one in line.
Vaibhav’s view: fun, freedom, and a defining innings
If Kishan used humour to deflect attention, Vaibhav turned it back on him.
He spoke about the atmosphere in the East Zone camp, how the mood off the field bled into their cricket. “The way we were off the field and the way we were enjoying inside, it was a lot of fun,” he said, drawing a straight line between that freedom and the way his captain batted in the final.
“The way he batted in the final, it was unbelievable. I can't say anything much about it,” he admitted, almost out of words to describe an innings that changed the match.
For Vaibhav, the turning point of the final was clear: Kishan’s knock. He felt the game shifted decisively from there, and he spoke like someone who knew he was learning on the job under a captain many in the domestic circuit have already played under and watched closely for years.
“It was a lot of fun to play in his captaincy. We enjoyed a lot,” he added, summing up a campaign where enjoyment and excellence walked hand in hand.
‘The most important thing is to enjoy’
As the conversation wound down, Kishan returned to a theme that has followed him through his career: joy.
“The most important thing is to enjoy,” he said. “The result is not in our hands, but to enjoy as a team is very important.” Then, with a champion’s mischief, he corrected himself. “Sorry, the result is in our hands right now, but it's very important to enjoy.”
That slip was telling. East Zone had just proved that enjoyment and control don’t have to be opposites. They can coexist in a dressing room where a 15-year-old helps call reviews in a final, a captain smashes 270, and both end the night arguing playfully over who really deserves the credit.
If this is what East Zone looks like with Kishan at the helm and Vaibhav at his shoulder, the rest of domestic cricket has a problem on its hands.
