Ishan Kishan's Duleep Trophy Final Brilliance and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's Rise

Ishan Kishan had just delivered one of the great Duleep Trophy final knocks, but in the East Zone dressing room after the 2026/27 title win, the conversation was not about his 270. It was about who really ran the DRS.

The India wicketkeeper-batter, captain in this campaign, sat alongside his 15-year-old deputy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and let the teenager have it – with a smile.

‘Vaibhav is the one!’

Kishan, who piled up more than 350 runs across the two innings in the final against South Zone and walked away with the Player of the Match award, insisted that his young understudy had quietly hijacked the spotlight whenever the reviews worked.

“Yeh sab review mein credit le hi liya hai har jagah. Bhale main lene waala tha review, but aake mast bol deta tha main aapke paas aa jaata hu. Phir toh internet will be like: Vaibhav! My goodness! Vaibhav is the one! Toh bohot acche se isne woh kaarya nibhaya hai,” Kishan laughed in a video posted on BCCI’s social media.

The message, stripped of the banter: the captain might have been ready to press the button, but the kid was the one walking up, owning the call, and inevitably becoming the internet’s darling.

Sooryavanshi did not let that pass.

“Aur jab field ke bahar jaa rahe the tab kon le raha tha review? Yeh bhi toh bata dijiye!” he shot back, reminding everyone that even as they walked off, he was still involved in the decision-making.

The exchange captured East Zone’s mood. A major title in the bag, a senior India star in full flow, and a 15-year-old vice-captain cracking jokes about DRS on camera.

A captain sees a captain

The teasing soon gave way to something more serious. Kishan, who had just overseen a dominant final, turned to the teenager and spoke like a senior pro spotting something special.

“Haan, that was Vaibhav himself! Yes. Future captain, maybe? Let’s see how it goes,” he said, before underlining why the youngster had already earned that trust in the dressing room.

“It’s very good to have him in the team because more than a very good player, he’s a very nice boy who takes care of each and every one in the team, whether it’s a junior player or senior.”

Then came another playful twist. Kishan, mid-sentence, caught himself while calling Sooryavanshi a junior.

“Achha, junior toh tu hi hua, sorry, sorry,” he corrected, acknowledging how quickly the teenager had grown into a leadership role.

That, he said, was the quality he loved most about him. The care for teammates, the presence, the willingness to take responsibility. The runs and skills will come; the temperament is already there.

“Hopefully, he’ll be more dangerous than what he is today. I think it’s not going to be his first or the last. I think he’s gonna play many more like this, and he’ll keep performing the way he’s doing right now,” Kishan added, placing a clear marker on the youngster’s future.

‘The match changed from there’

If Kishan spoke like a senior admiring a prodigy, Sooryavanshi answered like a vice-captain who had just watched his leader put on a show.

He talked about the atmosphere first.

“The way we were off the field and the way we were enjoying inside, it was a lot of fun,” he said, before turning to the innings that broke South Zone.

“The way he batted in the final, it was unbelievable. I can’t say anything much about it. I think the match changed from there,” he admitted.

East Zone’s campaign had already carried momentum, but Kishan’s 270 in the first innings ripped the contest open. From there, his team never really loosened their grip.

“As a captain, a lot of people have been watching and playing under him for a long time. It was a lot of fun to play in his captaincy. We enjoyed a lot,” Sooryavanshi said, giving a glimpse into a camp that clearly fed off Kishan’s energy as much as his runs.

‘The most important thing is to enjoy’

When the jokes, praise and mutual back-slapping eased, Kishan circled back to a simple idea that had underpinned East Zone’s run.

“The most important thing is to enjoy. The result is not in our hands, but to enjoy as a team is very important. Sorry, the result is in our hands right now, but it’s very important to enjoy,” he said, correcting himself with a grin that matched the scoreboard.

A captain with 270 to his name, a 15-year-old vice-captain already trusted with reviews and responsibility, and a trophy lifted together. For East Zone, this Duleep Trophy triumph was more than a title; it felt like the start of a partnership that might define many more big days.