Vaibhav Sooryavanshi benched: Why India’s bold T20I vision seems incomplete

Gautam Gambhir with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi during practice; Sanju Samson during the first T20I vs Afghanistan. (PTI/ANI Photos) NEW DELHI: India’s T20I captain Shreyas Iyer termed having to choose between Sanju Samson, Vaibhav Sooryanshi and Abhishek Sharma as a “luxury for any side”. More often than not, the challenge is to choose between Samson and Sooryavanshi. One brings experience and the other brings access without limits.This came as the T20I series between India and Afghanistan got underway at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday. There were no clear signs of one or the other as the teams went through the motions. Abhishek was batting a bit at the shadows. Sooryavanshi lined up to take some aerial catches. India coach Gautam Gambhir poked Samson’s wicket gloves.As the team huddled and surfaced, both Samson and Sooryavanshi found their way into the dugout. Both kept their poker faces well. Ishan Kishan, one of the wicket-taking options in the team, had a long talk with batting coach Sitanshu Kotak.The mystery box was opened at the toss when Shreyas Iyer announced that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Washington Sundar and two others (Ravi Bishnoi and Yash Thakur) were not in the playing XI. His reasoning for Sanjay Manjrekar was almost incoherent.“That’s more complicated I think, but I would say if Vaibhav (Sooryavanshi) isn’t playing, Washington (Sundar) isn’t playing and there are two others that you get to know,” he said of managing team combinations and picking players for the match.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (ANI Photo)

When it came down to it, Sanju Samson scored just 10 runs off 8 balls with two boundaries. His brief stay in the middle was stopped by Azmatullah Omarzai when Darwish Rasooli took a catch at deep square section. On a surface that needed patience to come into play, as Abhishek Sharma’s 32-ball 82 showed, the 31-year-old failed to capitalize on the opportunity.The batting order question, which Iyer did not answer with conviction at the toss, was re-examined by Abhishek Sharma and Varun Chakaravarthy after India’s 7-wicket victory with 38 balls to spare.“I still remember two years back, we decided we wanted to play a certain way and dominate all the teams. It worked for a year. But one or two (bad) runs don’t define our batting. As an opener, you want to start well as an opener,” said Sharma, whose 82 runs earned him the Man of the Match award.Meanwhile, Varun praised India’s top order for how deadly they are against the spinners.“Against our team, the batting line-up, you can’t bowl spin. So, if you bowl spin against our batting line-up, you’re just going to get hammered left, right and centre. We’re so used to batting. We’ve got one of the best batting line-ups and our top-8 can hit any batsman in the world. So I personally know how tough it is against them, I’ve played against them. spinners,” said the spinner, who had an economic return of injury.However, Sooryavanshi’s place in the team and long-term approach in the format remains a question mark. Samson’s presence adds wicketkeeping and left-right pairing at the top of the order. But with all due respect to Samson’s abilities, he steals what can be a game-changing, game-deciding pair of Abhishek-Sooryavanshi.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (PTI Photo)

Samson scored single figures against Ireland and in the first T20I against England before allowing Sooryavanshi to come on and make his India debut. Sooryavanshi couldn’t do much either, with 42 runs from three matches.But with Samson rested for the tour to Zimbabwe and Sooryavanshi the de facto choice, the 15-year-old produced a series-high 151 runs from three matches at a strike rate of 196.10.With India set to play two T20Is against Afghanistan, a one-off T20I against Japan, the Asian Games, five T20Is against the West Indies, five T20Is against New Zealand and three T20Is against Sri Lanka in 2026, a can of worms involving Sooryavanshi has been opened following his absence.The only reason Sooryavanshi was included in the squads for Ireland and England and quickly made the Indian squad in all 15 was to give wings to this sensational talent. Not playing him, in favor of Samson’s experience, is a huge disservice to him, his talent and Indian cricket in general.