‘He was a fish in water’: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s No.3 role questioned after IND vs NZ 2nd T20I

Ravichandran Ashwin believes Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was uncomfortable batting at No.3 in India’s second T20I against New Zealand and feels the team management should reconsider his position. The teenage batsman, who replaced the injured Ishan Kishan in the playing eleven, managed just four runs off eight balls after coming on in the sixth over.Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma continued to open, leaving Sooryavanshi to bat in an unfamiliar position. Ashwin described the youngster as “missing” after the match in Christchurch, but stressed that it was too early to judge him negatively.“That’s a miss. It’s too early a ‘miss’ for a young cricketer like Vaibhav to say, but because I only have two options, hit or miss, he found himself a bit like a fish out of water. He kept going hard, going hard for those eight balls,” he said.Ashwin felt Sooryavanshi needed guidance from an experienced batsman as he tries to settle into an unfamiliar role. He said an older partner could have helped the youngster stay calm and focus on playing the ball more carefully.“It didn’t feel like he ever timed the ball, and that’s when you need an older partner to come up to him and say, ‘Take it easy, just hang in there, watch yourself play close to your body, watch the ball better.’ Sometimes, as a batter, you just have to tell yourself to watch the ball closer. You miss that in all the events that are happening around you. So I just felt like the fish were out of the water. Walking in during the sixth is not his cup of tea,” he explained.Ashwin suggested that if India wanted to play Sooryavanshi, Abhishek and Samson together, Samson should move to No.3, a role he had previously played for India.“Look, I think they’ve played this combination before and Sanju had to skip to number three. If they’re going to go with that combination, I’m not too sure that Vaibhav had to bat at number three, but that’s the way it is. It was missing for Vaibhav today,” Ashwin further said.

Ashwin praises India’s middle order

Ashwin also praised India’s middle order, particularly Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ramandeep Singh, for helping the team chase down the total of 180 in New Zealand.“India’s middle order is coming along nicely. That’s six, seven and eight. It looks quite dangerous. They can all belt the ball. Ramandeep is a very good pace bowler. He’s showing that he can hit the spinners really well. To stand up and hit a spinner with Mitchell Santner’s pedigree is no joke and that tells you he looks great as a batsman.”“Tilak Varma is an echo of great temperament. I’m not too sure about Nitish’s temperament yet, but there is enough power for teams to worry when they come up against India’s lower middle and middle order. It’s a big blow for me,” concluded Ashwin.