“He’s absolutely ready to play international cricket, there’s no doubt about that,” ten Doeschate said when asked how far Sooryavanshi was from making his international debut. “But also, I think it’s not a question to say you can leave Sanju Samson out. A guy who went a long way to winning India the World Cup three months ago. A guy who’s had a fairly good IPL [Samson scored two hundreds for Chennai Super Kings].
“It’s important in terms of giving players confidence, and the message we’re sending to players. We want to give guys a long run in the team. So, you know, as ready as Vaibhav is and as excited as we are and you are to see him play, he’s going to have to go through the same process as everyone else and, you know, bide his time and wait. But certainly no questions about how good he is and how ready he is.”
From all indications from the team management, it seems Sooryavanshi’s debut depends on the incumbent top order’s performance more than how good he is. Even in the absence of a seam-bowling allrounder for the first match, with Hardik Pandya injured and Suryansh Shedge not yet in Ireland, India didn’t consider making an exception and pushing everyone one spot down. In the first match, the spin-bowling allrounder Washington Sundar played. Shedge made his debut in the second.
As of now, Sooryavanshi is only part of India’s T20I side and not the ODIs. He has been named for the five-match series in England, which begins on Wednesday, and then the Asian Games.
