Former South African captain AB de Villiers believes Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will get an opportunity in the third T20I against Afghanistan. Sooryavanshi had warmed the bench in the first two T20Is against the hosts whereas Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma had opened the innings in the first two games.
Meanwhile, Sooryavanshi has been in prime form as he scored 151 runs in three games against Zimbabwe when Sanju Samson was not picked in the squad. Furthermore, the left-hander scored 192 runs in five innings of the Duleep Trophy for East Zone.
India has taken an impregnable lead of 2-0 against Afghanistan after winning the second game by seven wickets and Shreyas Iyer hinted that the team could make some changes to their playing XI.
AB de Villiers said on his YouTube Channel, “The big talking point has been Suryavanshi not having a game yet. I think he will get an opportunity in the final match. The focus for Shreyas Iyer was on clinching the series and making it back-to-back series wins to build confidence in the team with him leading. But we should see Suryavanshi in the third T20I. The competition around the Indian top order is monumental at the moment.”
“It’s really difficult for a youngster, even though he’s so talented and played incredible cricket against Zimbabwe, to play. You just really have to break the door down even further. And it’s not a bad thing for a youngster to go through a stepping stone to ultimately knock the door down and cement your spot in the side. It’s also a bit of pressure on the more established players, with this youngster waiting for his opportunity to pounce.”
On the other hand, Abhishek Sharma has returned with scores of 82 and 39 in the first two games against Afghanistan. The former RCB batter, AB, said Abhishek has blown Afghanistan out of water.
“Abhishek Sharma has really blown Afghanistan out of the water. He is intimidating them almost with the bat in hand. Afghanistan have never had enough runs in both matches. With the openers India have and the fast starts they get, they can almost go run-a-ball in the middle overs and the back end to make it to the finish line,” said De Villiers (via the aforementioned source).
The third and final T20I between Afghanistan and India will be played at Delhi on Thursday.
