When Mahendra Singh Dhoni was starting out as an India player, he had a favour to ask of the media. Please don’t rush to my parents’ house every time I score some runs, he pleaded. It is difficult to say which comes first, the public’s obsessive interest in a player or the media’s creation of that obsession. To remain a public figure and yet retain privacy is a delicate balancing act.

Sachin Tendulkar managed it well. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, younger when making his international debut, should steel himself (as his family must too) for the invasions that will surely follow. Yes, the public has a right to know (the usual argument), and yes the media only give the public what it wants. But at 15, Sooryavanshi is hardly in a position to resist even if he had the tools or knew the tricks.

He has made his point, winning the player-of-the-series award after India’s victory in Zimbabwe. Turns out, he is what everyone had expected: a potentially great white-ball player, a six-hitter........

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