‘He can’t fit in now’: Shreyas Iyer says Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has ‘more years to get opportunities’

Shreyas Iyer and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi India T20 captain Shreyas Iyer has made it clear that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will have to wait for regular opportunities in the playing XI, with established openers Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson continuing to lead the order.Despite the teenager’s impressive rise, Iyer believes there is no need to rush his integration into the side, pointing out that India’s current opening combination has played consistently and played a key role in their successful World T20 title defense earlier this year.On the eve of India’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand, Iyer stressed that the 15-year-old has plenty of time to establish himself at international level and should remain comfortable in the team environment while waiting for his opportunities.“It is important that a talent like him (Sooryavanshi) is always happy in the dressing room,” Iyer said.“He’s very young, he’s got more years to get opportunities. It’s not like he can come in now because our openers are scoring regularly and have won the World Cup.”Sooryavanshi was included in the Indian squads for the tour of England and Ireland earlier this year. However, he has featured in only eight of the 21 T20Is India have played since then, with Abhishek and Samson largely retaining their places as the first-choice opening pair.The youngster got an opportunity to open up during the Asian Games where Samson moved up to No.3 to accommodate him at the top of the order.Although Iyer does not expect Sooryavanshi to walk straight into the playing XI, he believes the experience of touring overseas and getting a feel for different conditions will benefit the youngster in the long run.“So if you see that when he comes overseas he will get a good idea of ​​how to play those particular wickets.“Next time, whenever he comes in these conditions, he will be very well prepared. And he can also instruct the other team members who come here for the first time.