“Can you survive five days?” - Yograj Singh’s brutal assessment of young batter after impressive IPL 2025

Former India cricketer Yograj Singh has said that emerging youngsters like Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre should focus on their fitness, keeping Test cricket in mind, and not just white-ball cricket. The 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) saw the emergence of a plethora of exciting young players, who are bound to be in the scheme of things across formats, as far as the national team is concerned.

One of the biggest takeaways of the entire season were the performances of 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The youngest player to play in the competition by a fair margin, the opening batter made a meaningful impact for the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the recently concluded campaign. He scored 252 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of 206.56, which included a stunning hundred against the Gujarat Titans (GT).

The youngster largely featured as an impact sub in the tournament, and was not seen on the field too much. As far as red-ball cricket is concerned, he has played five first-class matches at senior level, scoring 100 runs at an average of 10.

Yograj opined that youngsters have to build fitness to survive the rigors of five days of Test cricket.

“My vision is Test cricket. Can you survive five days? That’s the real test. 50 overs – fair enough. 20 overs – fair enough. I don’t go by these formats. But since they (formats) are there, you should be fit enough to play all three formats. Why do you struggle? Because you are only concentrating on T20, IPL and 50 overs. Aj toh 50 overs bhi nahi khel sakte hum log (Today, we cannot even play 50 overs.) That’s the way we are," Yograj Singh told InsideSport in an interview.

"All the coaches and all the administrators want to sit in the air conditioning and do things. Here, I am under 48 degrees Celsius, having a passion to produce more brilliant cricketers like Yuvraj Singh,” Yograj added.

Suryavanshi recently scored 190 runs off 90 deliveries in a red-ball practice match at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi included in India's U-19 squad for England tour

The youngster found a place in the Ayush Mhatre-led squad that will travel to England for a youth tour comprising a 50-over warm-up match, a five-match Youth one-day series, and two multi-day matches.

The tour is scheduled to begin on June 27 with the first youth ODI, and it will culminate with the second youth Test, beginning on July 20 in Chelmsford.