Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar questioned Sanju Samson’s omission from India’s playing XI in the second T20I against England. Samson made way for Sooryavanshi in the second game of the series. The Kerala batter was awarded Player of the tournament in the T20 World Cup after he scored 321 runs in five matches.

Samson had a decent run in IPL 2026 as he scored 477 runs in 14 matches of the tournament for the Chennai Super Kings. However, the Indian opener returned with scores of 5, 0 and 1 in the last three innings and the pressure was building on him with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi waiting in the wings.

Manjrekar is hopeful that Samson was rested due to injury and not dropped from the playing XI. At the same time, he expressed his delight that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made his T20I debut.

“Great to see Vaibhav in India colours. But what about Samson! Dropped?? Are you kidding me! No, I guess, injured. Let’s hope it’s injury. Or it’s the most bizarre selection. Could have easily batted at 3 if you wanted to get Vaibhav in,” he tweeted on X.

Meanwhile, Sooryavanshi became the youngest Indian player to make his International debut after the great Sachin Tendulkar. However, Sooryavanshi’s debut was not a memorable one as he was dismissed after scoring 14 runs off 10 balls. He smashed two sixes in his cameo innings but was stumped by Jos Buttler on the bowling of Will Jacks.

The youngster had received his maiden T20I call-up after he accumulated 776 runs in 16 matches of IPL 2026 for Rajasthan Royals and played a key role in helping the franchise qualify for the playoffs.

The third T20I between England and India will be played at Nottingham on Tuesday.