Written by Megan Taylor, sports reporter covering international sports since 2020
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi England tour plans include separate changing facilities for the 15-year-old India Cricket Team batter under safeguarding rules before his first senior international trip in the United Kingdom.
Sooryavanshi is expected to become India’s youngest international cricketer in Friday’s Twenty20 international against Ireland Cricket Team in Belfast, before a five-match T20 series against England Cricket Team begins in Durham next Wednesday. The move matters because International Cricket Council and England and Wales Cricket Board procedures do not allow under-16 players to use adult changing rooms.
For more cricket coverage, read Ben Stokes Apology Comes Before England Test Decider At Trent Bridge, while official international cricket information is available through the International Cricket Council website.
Safeguarding Rules Shape Tour Plans
Sooryavanshi will have his own changing room at venues during the England series, which is being treated as an International Cricket Council event.
He will still be allowed inside the India dressing room during matches and team talks. The restriction applies when he is changing before and after games.
His parents are also understood to be travelling with him, with the England and Wales Cricket Board working alongside the Board of Control for Cricket in India and venue safeguarding officers.
The Belfast matches against Ireland are not expected to use the same rules because they fall under Cricket Ireland’s jurisdiction.
Teenage Batter Set For History
Sooryavanshi would beat Sachin Tendulkar’s India record, after Tendulkar made his Test debut aged 16 years and 205 days in 1989.
He would also become the youngest player to represent a full member nation since Pakistan selected Hasan Raza, aged 14, for a one-day international against Bangladesh Cricket Team in 1996.
Sooryavanshi has already made a major mark in the Indian Premier League with Rajasthan Royals. He scored 252 runs at a strike rate of 206.5 in his debut season and became the youngest centurion in men’s T20 cricket with a 38-ball hundred.
He was the Indian Premier League’s highest scorer this year with 776 runs and hit 65 sixes, breaking Chris Gayle’s long-standing season record. On Sunday, he made 94 from 29 balls for India A against Sri Lanka A, including an 11-ball List A fifty.