Vaibhav Suryavanshi becomes vice-captain at 14 in Ranji Trophy; Bihar cricket promotes youngster into leadership group

In a surprising move, Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) has named Vaibhav Suryavanshi as the vice-captain of the Ranji Trophy squad for the first two games in the upcoming 2025-26 season. The 14-year-old will be deputy to captain Sakibul Gani as Bihar open their campaign on October 15 in Plate Group. They play Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur in the opening two encounters of the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 season.

Coming into the limelight after his success for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year, Suryavanshi continued to impress at the international stage with the India U-19 team during their tours of England and Australia.

With a strike rate of over 206 runs, Suryavanshi took the whole world by storm when he became the youngest ever to score an IPL hundred. He finished IPL 2025 with 252 runs in seven matches. Against England U-19, Suryavanshi had scored the fastest hundred in youth ODIs. Suryavanshi's hundred on Australian soil came in the first youth Test in Brisbane.

The development of Suryavanshi being appointed as vice-captain came just days after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) directed the BCA to appoint a selector, on an ad-hoc basis, besides a five-member selection committee as soon as possible.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi unlikely to play entire Ranji season

Despite being made vice-captain of Bihar, Suryavanshi might not play the entire Ranji Trophy season. Having made his Ranji Trophy debut at 12 in January 2024, Suryavanshi has played just five matches so far, scoring 100 runs in 10 innings due to his national team commitment.

In the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy, Suryavanshi is also likely to miss out on a few games as the left-hander is tipped to be picked for the India U-19 World Cup side, which will get underway in early 2026.

Bihar Ranji Trophy 2025-26 squad

Piyush Kumar Singh, Bhashkar Dubey, Sakibul Gani (capt), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (vice-capt), Arnav Kishor, Ayush Loharuka, Bipin Saurabh, Amod Yadav, Nawaz Khan, Sakib Hussain, Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Sachin Kumar Singh, Himanshu Singh, Khalid Alam, Sachin Kumar.