callup

Teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has received his first international call-up by making the India T20 squad to tour England and Ireland.

If he plays, the 15-year-old would break Sachin Tendulkar’s record as the youngest man to play for India. Tendulkar was 16 years and 205 days when he played a one-day international against Pakistan in 1989.

The call-up comes on the back of Sooryavanshi ‘s stunning Indian Premier League campaign, where he scored 776 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 237.30 for the Rajasthan Royals.

The left-hander was named the IPL’s Most Valuable Player and also picked up the emerging player award and the Orange Cap, given to the highest run-scorer.

He also scored 175 in February as India beat England in the final of the Under-19 World Cup.

“We’ve seen what he can do, almost single-handedly carrying Rajasthan Royals towards the play-offs,” said selection panel chairman Ajit Agarkar.

“He had a great start and backed it up in a competition that is as competitive and high-pressure. He’s a game-changer. We’ve got high hopes of him. He has picked himself.”

India play two matches in Ireland later this month, then five T20s in England in July.

Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer has been named as the new captain, replacing Suryakumar Yadav, who has been dropped from the squad.

Suryakumar led India to victory at the T20 World Cup in March but the 35-year-old struggled with the bat at the tournament and at the recent IPL.

“It’s a tough one, having just won the World Cup, but as happens after most World Cups, you try to reassess what your best way forward is,” Agarkar said explaining Yadav’s omission.

“We thought this was the best way forward.”

Shreyas has not played a T20 international since 2023 but he led the Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL title in 2024 and captained Punjab Kings to a runners-up finish in 2025.

Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Hardik Pandya have been rested, with uncapped fast bowler Prince Yadav called up.

Full squad

Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Nitish Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

On the day he learned he would be England’s new opener, Emilio Gay drove from Durham to Bedford to tell his parents about his first international call-up.

The 26-year-old Durham batter received a phone call at 08:00 BST from his county director of cricket and new England national selector Marcus North, telling the left-hander he is in the squad to play New Zealand at Lord’s on 4 June.

“He actually kind of woke me up,” Gay told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Instead of then calling his parents to relay the news, Gay decided to jump in the car as part of his journey to the County Championship game against Kent at Beckenham on Friday.

“I didn’t really want to ring them, because we’ve been through so much,” said Gay. “I thought I’ve got to be there to tell them. I drove back to Bedford.

“My brother videoed it and it was a moment I’ll never forget. It was a really good day.”

Gay’s mother is Italian, which is how he qualified to play three T20 internationals for Italy last year.

His father’s family hail from Grenada and it was a trip to the Caribbean in 2007, around the time West Indies hosted the World Cup, that sparked Gay’s love of cricket. He even got a signed shirt from former Windies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.

“I fell in love with the game through my dad’s family roots in the Caribbean,” said Gay.

“That’s how I really got into it properly at seven years old, and from there it built and built. One day I dreamed of getting called up to play for England and that day came today.”

Just like Sir Alastair Cook, the most successful opener ever to play for England, Gay is a former pupil of Bedford School.

He began his professional career at Northamptonshire and moved to Durham last season. A specialist opener by trade, he usually bats at three for the north-east county.

Though Gay is one of two uncapped batters in the England squad for the first Test against New Zealand, alongside Somerset’s James Rew, director of cricket Rob Key has confirmed it will be Gay opening at Lord’s against the Black Caps.

He will take the place of Zak Crawley, who has been dropped following the 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia.

Crawley’s omission has been expected for some time, with Gay’s three centuries at the beginning of the new County Championship season putting him in the spotlight.