Former Indian selector Kris Srikkanth slammed the team management for not giving chances to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the last two T20Is against New Zealand. Sooryavanshi could only manage four runs off eight balls in the second game while batting at one drop after he replaced injured Ishan Kishan in the final XI.
In the third game, Sooryavanshi was promoted as an opener and smashed 45 runs off just 19 balls. However, when Kishan returned to the team’s playing XI, Sooryavanshi was dropped from the team despite India taking an impregnable lead of 3-0 in the series.
Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “I can’t understand why Vaibhav Suryavanshi didn’t play the last two games. He is in excellent form and proved himself in New Zealand conditions in the previous game. You have to groom this boy, and instead you play him one match and drop him in the next. You are creating an atmosphere that’s insecure for players, be it Samson or Suryavanshi. It’s foolishness that the management is doing.”
“Samson has scored only 160 runs in his last 13 matches outside India with a lone fifty. He struggled in Ireland and England and now again in New Zealand. I am not saying they should drop Sanju Samson. But give him a break. Or rotate between the three openers equally. But you can’t keep dropping Suryavanshi,” stated Srikkanth.
Meanwhile, Sooryavanshi didn’t play a single game against the West Indies in the five-match series and Srikkanth said he should have received his chance against the visitors.
“West Indies was a terrible bowling attack. Suryavanshi should have got an opportunity in those five matches against that bowling. Same way, he didn’t get a chance in the Afghanistan and Ireland series. Everyone else padded their stats in such series against lower-ranked opponents. Against these horrible bowling sides, everyone else plays except Suryavanshi,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).
India will next take on New Zealand in a five-match ODI series, starting Wednesday.
