Vaibhav Sooryavanshi named to Time100 Next 2026: Is he the youngest ever to feature on the prestigious list?

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi named to Time100 Next 2026: Is he the youngest ever to feature on the prestigious list? originally appeared on Cricket News.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been named to TIME’s 2026 Next list of 100 emerging global leaders.
• At 15, he is the youngest person on this year’s list, but not the youngest in the list’s history.
• He joins six other athletes on the list, including Arch Manning, Tyrese Maxey and Naomi Girma.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi named to Time100 Next 2026

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s rapid rise through Indian cricket has now carried him well beyond the boundary rope. The 15-year-old has been named to TIME’s 2026 Next list, an annual recognition of 100 rising figures across sport, entertainment, politics and business.

According to BBC Sport, Sooryavanshi is the youngest person on this year’s list and one of seven athletes included, alongside American football quarterback Arch Manning, NBA guard Tyrese Maxey, footballers Naomi Girma and Folarin Balogun, tennis player Alexandra Eala and basketball player Olivia Miles.

TIME CEO Jessica Sibley framed the honour as recognition of genuine impact rather than simple promise. “This year’s list-makers are pushing boundaries, creating new possibilities, and advancing their fields and communities around the world,” she said.

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Is Sooryavanshi the youngest person ever named to TIME100 Next?

No. While Sooryavanshi is the youngest honoree on the 2026 list, he is not the youngest person to ever appear on TIME100 Next since its launch in 2019. That distinction belongs to figure skater Alysa Liu, who was just 14 when she appeared on the list’s inaugural edition.

The youngest honouree has actually varied considerably from year to year. Charli D’Amelio was 16 when she topped the youngest spot in 2021, Summer McIntosh was 18 in 2024, and Elliston Berry was 16 in 2025. Sooryavanshi, at 15, sits younger than most of those but still behind Liu’s mark from the very first list.

What is accurate is that Sooryavanshi is the youngest cricketer, and the youngest athlete from this year’s group of seven, to receive the honour, a genuinely rare achievement for a sport that rarely produces teenage global headlines of this kind.

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Why Sooryavanshi’s inclusion still carries real weight

The recognition caps an extraordinary run for a player who was the youngest ever signed at an IPL auction, bought by Rajasthan Royals in 2024 at just 13 years old. He made his IPL debut the following year and became the youngest player to score a century in men’s T20 cricket.

Being named alongside athletes like Arch Manning and Naomi Girma, each already established figures in their own sports’ mainstream conversation, says plenty about how quickly Sooryavanshi has moved from a domestic curiosity to a name recognised well outside cricket’s usual audience.

He will not attend TIME’s event in New York on October 29 as the youngest honouree in the list’s history, but he arrives as proof that cricket’s biggest talents can still break into rooms the sport rarely reaches.

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