Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan He has thrown his weight behind teenage sensation Vibhu Suryavanshi, insisting that performance at the highest level should take precedence over age.Dhawan was full of praise for the youngster’s fearless approach, especially against top-order bowlers, highlighting how rare such confidence is at such an early stage.“If Web If he is excelling at the senior level then he has to count and not his age. Yes he is a kid but it is amazing the way he hits Bumrah and Arsdeep for such big sixes,” Dhawan said in an interview to PTI.“A lot of big guns haven’t done what he has at such a young age. Obviously his time will come. It’s coming.”Suryavanshi has backed up this praise with numbers in IPL 2026. He has scored 400 runs at an astonishing strike rate of 238.10, making him one of the highest run-scorers while also hitting 37 sixes, the most by any batsman.Dhawan, however, admitted that breaking a settled Indian top order was a challenge. India recently won the T20 World Cup 2026 and the players love it. Sanju Samson And Abhishek Sharma By performing well, opportunities may not come easily.“Look, if the top order is doing well, you cannot replace them easily. When Rohit and Virat were playing, we played for almost a decade and it was not easy to replace us.“It depends on the individual how they take it. It may hurt you a bit but if the opportunity doesn’t come easily then don’t be disappointed. Vaibhav has a lot of blessings at this young age.”He also spoke about how T20 batting has evolved over the years, with a clear shift towards aggressive intent, while still emphasizing the importance of technique.“When we started, our coaches said hit with the ground and now it’s the opposite. Like Vibhu’s defense is good because I’ve seen him defend close to his body.”On adapting to all formats, Dhawan emphasized that mindset plays a vital role, especially for a generation that has grown up playing T20 cricket.“Technique needs to be good but changing formats requires a change in mindset when you need to speed up or slow down. That comes with match practice. Today’s generation is building their game around T20 so there will be challenges for them.”
