3 min readUpdated: Jul 9, 2026 10:57 PM IST
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s vulnerability against short deliveries was exploited yet again by England, as the opener perished for a 10-ball 15 in India’s fourth T20I against England, which is being played at the County Ground in Bristol. He has struggled against back-of-length deliveries in all three matches of his international career so far.
Having found the strategy conducive in the previous two T20Is, Jofra Archer — a teammate of Sooryavanshi at Rajasthan Royals — banged the ball short twice in the first over. The wunderkind offered a swing on both occasions, but could not get the connection he desired.
Josh Tongue tried replicating the same in the second over, but strayed in his line and was dispatched into the stands by Sooryavanshi. Archer, however, predominantly bowled bodyline and required only eight deliveries at the 15-year-old to get his wicket for the second game running.
Trying to pull a delivery which bounced a few inches too much for his liking, Sooryavanshi holed out a catch to Sam Curran at mid-on, ending his 10-ball stay. With this dismissal, the southpaw has now accumulated only 42 runs in the three opportunities he has been given, with his scores being in a linear arithmetic progression: 13, 14 and 15.
Notably, a similar short delivery by Archer led to Sooryavanshi’s downfall in the previous fixture as well. On that occasion, he gloved a delivery aimed at the leg stump, and was caught by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. Off-spinner Will Jacks might have dismissed Sooryavanshi in the latter’s debut appearance in an Indian shirt, but a similar theme could be observed, with Archer and Tongue peppering him with short deliveries.
India, meanwhile, are in the corridor where they can ill afford to make mistakes, should they harbour aspirations of salvaging a stalemate from this series. After the first T20I was washed out, Shreyas Iyer’s team was handed a four-wicket defeat in Manchester, whilst in Nottingham, they suffered an embarrassing 125-run defeat, where the defending world champions of this format were bowled out for 76. It happened to be India’s biggest defeat in terms of runs in a T20I encounter, and also the lowest score by any team at a men’s T20I game in England.
