There was no place for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old in India’s playing XI for the first T20I against Afghanistan, despite winning the Player of the Series accolade in the previous assignment against Zimbabwe. Skipper Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir opted to stick with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as the two openers for the first T20I of the three-match series against Afghanistan on Sunday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
The return of Samson, the T20 World Cup Player of the Tournament, was always going to complicate matters for the think tank, as the choice among him, Sooryavanshi and Abhishek was difficult.
Ahead of the series opener, Shreyas had admitted that it would be a tough call, and he would have a word with whoever gets left out. On Sunday, at the toss, it was confirmed that Sanju would indeed start the series alongside Abhishek.
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Previously, Sooryavanshi was named the Player of the Series in Zimbabwe for his total of 151 runs in three matches, with a high score of 80. The youngster now needs to wait for his first international match on home soil.
Earlier, both Shreyas and Gambhir were criticised for the way they handled Samson and Sooryavanshi during the UK tour. The right-handed batter played two T20Is against Ireland and one against England; however, three low scores were all it took for the management to bring Sooryavanshi into the mix.
However, the left-hander failed to replicate his IPL form in the first three T20Is in his international career, and he too was dropped, making way for Samson for the final T20I. The seasoned player Samson was then rested for the Zimbabwe tour, and this led to Sooryavanshi starting in all three T20Is.
What happened at the toss?
India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl in the first T20I against Afghanistan. At the toss, the India skipper did not elaborate much on the decision to leave Sooryavanshi out, despite broadcaster Sanjay Manjrekar mentioning the setup, choosing to stick with Samson and Abhishek.
“It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but if you see the previous series, which we played against Zimbabwe, there were a lot of positives, and the boys were optimistic in their approach. So that’s the attitude we have to carry in this series as well,” said Shreyas at the toss.
Here are the playing XIs:
India: Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy
Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi.