15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is the talk of the town, and after being bestowed with his first official Team India jersey ahead of the Ireland T20Is, he joined global sports royalty.
Should he debut during the first leg of the away UK tour, which starts with two T20Is in Belfast on June 26, Sooryavanshi will become the youngest Indian men’s cricketer. However, he will do it by having ’03’ written on his Indian jersey, a number that signifies domination, authority on the game, longevity, and a promising career ahead, like spin king Harbhajan Singh and football icons Paolo Maldini and Roberto Carlos.
Much like these stars, Sooryavanshi is as skilful as any the game has seen, maintains his authority over the bowlers, even the best of them, and with age on his side, can guarantee a career filled with records and accolades.
“Ever since I first held a bat and walked onto a cricket field to practice, I dreamed of this moment…I cannot explain this feeling in words,” Sooryavanshi said in the BCCI video.
A new star on the block
Sooryavanshi is a star in the making. Picked in the senior men’s team following his exploits in IPL 2026, where he earned a record five accolades in a single season, Sooryavanshi has won medals, titles and praises from all quarters, all before stepping out for the first time as an Indian player.
The left-handed attacking opener is already an Under-19 T20 World Cup winner, an IPL Orange Cap winner (for scoring 776 runs in the 2026 edition), has smashed the most sixes in an IPL edition, and is a winner of the recently concluded ODI tri-series in Sri Lanka alongside several others.
His video-game-like strokeplay forces fans to sit up and admire him, and makes statisticians worry about putting the right stat out every second. And the best part is that he does all of this with utter ease, no pressure and purely for the love of the game, at just 15 years old.
Jersey number and Vaibhav’s elite company
In Indian Cricket, the newcomers can pick their jersey number. After selecting one, which should be vacant, not attained by an active player and is also not retired (to honour selective players), it undergoes a complete process before being allotted to that player.
Now that Vaibhav has picked No.3, previously used by two-time World Cup winner Harbhajan Singh, it remains to be seen how well he justifies it and carries its legacy forward.
Let alone in cricket, several global stars across various sports have donned the No.3 jersey, entertaining billions all over. In football, former Italy captain Maldini and Brazilian fullback and FIFA World Cup winner, Roberto Carlos, are there. In the NBA, Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul wore that number jersey.
Given all these names have done their bit to shine at the top stage, it’s time for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to make this number and cricket all about himself by serving and performing for Indian cricket for decades to come.