Former Indian chief selector Kris Srikkanth has criticised India’s think tank for not giving chances to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi amid the T20I series against the West Indies. Sooryavanshi was on the bench in the first three games of the series as Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma opened the innings for India.
The youngster recently returned with scores of 38 and 15 in the Asian Games semifinal and final against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, respectively.
After the T20I series against Afghanistan, head coach Gautam Gambhir said in the press conference that Sooryavanshi will need to wait for his chances.
Sooryavanshi had a breakthrough season for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2026, scoring 776 runs in 16 matches of the tournament at a strike rate of 237.10. After an impressive run in the IPL, Sooryavanshi received his maiden T20I call-up for the UK tour.
The prodigy batter didn’t make his debut against Ireland but was given his chances against England, though he failed to impress, aggregating only 42 runs in three games.
Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “India have totally spoiled Suryavanshi. He could have been given three matches against an ordinary team like the West Indies. Now that they’ve seen Abhishek for so long, he can be rested, and Suryavanshi and Samson can open in the next match.”
Meanwhile, Sanju Samson scored three runs off six balls in the last T20I at Indore. The Indian opener scored 82 runs off 41 balls in the second game and Srikkanth said there have always been questions about Samson’s consistency.
“Samson has always been up and down. His consistency has always been questionable. He’ll suddenly do wonders like the World Cup and then suddenly fail a lot. Someone like Abhishek Sharma never has such extremes. Now, again, Samson will score in the next match,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).
The fourth T20I between India and the West Indies will be played on Wednesday.
