Gautam Gambhir faces tactical headache over blooding prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after Ireland shocker

Following shock defeats to Ireland, India's team management faces immense pressure to include 15-year-old batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for the upcoming England T20 series, forcing Gautam Gambhir to contemplate tough selection casualties to preserve squad balance

New Delhi: How to fit Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s generational talent into a settled side was the question that India faced at the beginning of the tour and after two unexpected losses to Ireland, the only clear answer seems to be — find a way to do it.

The paying public has been ready to queue up at the turnstiles at least three hours before the start of an international game in the hope that the 15-year-old would be slotted in.

---

The Indian team management has, however, steadfastly insisted on following the process. After losing to Ireland, the process would definitely be up for a review.

The 15-year-old prodigy couldn’t be fitted into the playing eleven as India’s opening duo of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma hadn’t done anything wrong in the T20 World Cup and deserved to play the very next series where the national team took part.

But now the question of not playing Sooryavanshi doesn’t even arise unless the team management headlined by coach Gautam Gambhir remains firm that the Samson-Abhishek combination is irreplaceable.

Selections are never as straightforward as they seem but the Team India think-tank will have to find a plausible solution in the five-match T20 series in England beginning July 1.

The wickets are expected to be slightly flatter going by how they have behaved in summers during the past few seasons.

“Against Ireland, the kind of form that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was in coming into the series, he could have been picked for both games. You could have picked Abhishek and Samson in one game each and played Sooryavanshi in both games. It was a good platform to try talented youth,” the legendary Sunil Gavaskar said on Aaj Tak.

“You have to play him from the first game in England. The team management needs to drop out of form batters and play Sooryavanshi. Either you fit him in at No. 3 keeping both your openers but whatever it is Sooryavanshi has to play in the first game in England on July 1. If you want to shock England in first game, then Sooryavanshi must play,” he asserted.

If the think-tank doesn’t want to disturb the Samson-Abhishek combination, then batters, starting with Ishan Kishan, will have to drop down a slot. The new order could have Sooryavanshi at three followed by Kishan at No. 4, Shreyas Iyer at No. 5, Tilak Varma at No. 6, Shivam Dube at No. 7 and Axar Patel at No.8.

This cane work out on the assumption that Suryansh Shedge would be dropped from the first game against England.

From Nos 5 to 8, one can be flexible depending on match situation and need for left-right combination.

If Shivam Dube comes in at No. 7, then he would be expected to bowl four overs on most days as only Abhishek bowls part-time left-arm spin in the top-order which is at least usable in international games.

Dube is no Hardik Pandya and at best, he could be a sixth bowler in the T20 set-up and there starts the real problem.

All of India’s T20 batting heroes like to hit big in IPL knowing that there is an Impact Player as a cushion.

The moment they play on tracks which have something to offer, it poses a problem for them.

Having played on tracks that can be likened to ‘National Highways’, Indian batters have lost sight of the proverbial plan B if attack at all costs doesn’t work.

If one wants to play the Samson-Abhishek pair along with Sooryavanshi, one has to either sacrifice Ishan Kishan or Tilak Varma to ensure that five specialist bowlers and not four with two all-rounders.

However, the most logical solution would be to drop Samson. It would be an unpopular move but Samson has had two first ball ducks in two games and looked out of sync in slightly bowler-friendly conditions where his technique got tested.

But if Sooryavanshi is to be blooded without disturbing the balance of the bowling attack, the team think-tank needs to talk to Samson.

Landmark calls can only be taken the hard way.

Someone will have to endure a heartbreak and that’s perfectly acceptable looking at the bigger picture.