Anyone who thinks Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will be back among the runs against Zimbabwe just like that is again underestimating international cricket.
Make no mistake, the three T20I games in the African nation will be as tough as the ones in England recently. He contributed 14, 13 and 15 in those games and proved he had some great six-hitting skills. Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue were witnesses to that. However, there were many issues in his batting too. First and foremost, he lacked the patience to build his innings, which was understandable. When one plays on batting-friendly sub-continental pitches with smaller boundaries for a long time with great success, one tends to get carried away and doesn’t apply as required in alien conditions. But he can be forgiven. He is all of 15 years of age. He is learning.
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The second shortcoming that came to the surface was his inability to deal with short-pitched deliveries. Twice in those three matches, rising deliveries undid him. Even during the IPL and the 50-overs tri-series in Sri Lanka later, Sooryavanshi showed quite a few times that he wasn’t exactly very comfortable against short balls.
Sooryavanshi, who was dropped for the fifth T20I against England, last played on July 9. There is no doubt that during this period, he would have tried to rectify those areas. However, there has not been enough time for that. In two weeks’ time, he is on another continent in another set of conditions against a team that has some top-notch players in its ranks and, now and then, beats a big team. In the T20 World Cup, Zimbabwe, under Sikandar Raza, stunned Australia and co-hosts Sri Lanka against all odds.
These are no ordinary bowlers
They boast fast bowlers like Blessing Muzarabani, Brad Evans and Richard Ngarava, and they will test Sooryavanshi not a little. Then there is the wily Raza, who is Zimbabwe’s biggest player at present. He won’t be easy to deal with either. Looking at this bowling line-up, it is clear it won’t be a walk in the park for Sooryavanshi.
While the weather and pitch conditions in Harare won’t be like the ones in England, they are still nowhere close to the ones in India, which simply means Sooryavanshi has to keep his flamboyant batting style in check. He has to spend some time in the middle, get used to conditions, and then play his natural game.
Sooryavanshi also needs a lot of support from his captain Shreyas Iyer, and interim coach VVS Laxman. If he misfires again, to all intents and purposes, it will be a clarion call for the BCCI to come up with a proper grooming schedule for the left-handed batsman from Bihar. However, if he does score good runs, it will be an indication that the young man is a quick learner. That’s what the team management must be hoping for ahead of this contest. There is another possibility we have not discussed yet, even if it’s quite remote: what if Sooryavanshi doesn’t play today? If that happens, it means the BCCI has already got the new grooming schedule out for him, totally ignoring his achievements in the recent past. That will mean he will have to wait his turn.