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Cricket Players‘Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will have to wait’: Gautam Gambhir makes no guarantees after 15-year-old misses Afghanistan T20Is
Gautam Gambhir weighed in on the Sanju Samson versus Vaibhav Sooryavanshi debate. Here's what he said.
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Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old prodigy, might have won the Player of the Series accolade in Zimbabwe, but he now needs to wait for his opportunity, as Sanju Samson remains ahead in the pecking order. The left-handed batter didn't get a single game in the series against Afghanistan, which the Men in Blue won 3-0 on Thursday, and the status quo is likely to be maintained in the upcoming Asian Games, where VVS Laxman will coach the Shreyas Iyer-led side.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Thursday made it clear that Sooryavanshi needs to wait as Samson and Abhishek Sharma are likely to be persisted with in the near future because of their past performances. The team management's handling of Samson and Sooryavanshi came into question during the UK tour, as both players got three games each, with neither setting the house on fire.
Samson was then rested for the Zimbabwe tour, where Sooryavanshi opened the batting alongside Abhishek, to eventually score 151 runs and be named the Player of the Series. However, the right-hander made his way back for the Afghanistan series to relegate Sooryavanshi to the bench.
"From Vaibhav's point of view, it is again a very clear conversation that he has to wait for his opportunity. We know the kind of talent he has. We know what he can do. But again, someone who has done extremely well over a period of years obviously will always be ahead of someone who has just got into the team. Whenever he gets that chance, you will get a longer run as well," Gambhir told reporters in the post-match press conference.
“And that is what Indian cricket is all about. We want competition, we want that talent in the dressing room. But sometimes that's how cricket goes. Whether it is a 15-year-old or a 30-year-old, you have to wait for opportunity,” he added.
‘Toughest decision’
On the tour of the UK, Samson was dropped from the playing XI after three low scores - one against England and two against Ireland. This led to Sooryavanshi making his debut; however, once the youngster failed for three games as well, he was dropped.
However, Samson made amends in the series against Afghanistan, scoring two half-centuries. Gambhir said that the decision to leave out the right-hander in England was the toughest decision of his coaching career so far.
"I think Samson showed what he is capable of. Someone doesn't become Player Of The Tournament in the World Cup without having talent, so he has done enough. Obviously, it was tough- probably the toughest decision I have taken in my coaching career, was leaving him out of that England series because of the way he had performed before that," said Gambhir.
“But again, sometimes you go with the players' form as well. From my point of view, I wanted to go back to the combination we had during the World Cup, because those guys, after three or four failures, don't become bad players. If a team has gone from one World Cup to another one unbeaten and has won the World Cup. Suddenly, it has become a team after one series, and these guys have not become bad players,” he added.
