4 min readJul 1, 2026 11:46 PM IST
First published on: Jul 1, 2026 at 11:38 PM IST
Sanju Samson has been in this space before. In the months leading up to the T20 World Cup, when his form was fluctuating, he witnessed from the sidelines how Ishan Kishan, who was in wilderness at the time, emerged out of nowhere and came for his spot. Such was Ishan’s performance that after his century in Thiruvananthapuram, Samson recalled in a CSK podcast with Abhinav Mukund, “When he scored that hundred, I was like ‘Sanju now you just give it to him boss he deserves it more than you do. You got your chances, you didn’t score runs but there is someone who is in tremendous form’.”
It has been six months since that game at his home ground. In between he won back his spot in the middle of the T20 World Cup and single-handedly powered them to a title with three stunning knocks. A mixed IPL came and went with Chennai Super Kings. And now after three outings in the middle so far in the tour of the UK which included the first T20I against England on Wednesday at Chester-le-Street, he had another single-digit score next to his name. His scoreline in this trip reads: 5, 0 & 1. This time, it isn’t Ishan who is vying for his spot. It is the Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Every match that the 15-year-old spends on the bench, questions around his omission gets louder.
It isn’t an easy decision for the team management to make. They have their merits for sticking to the top three that includes Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan for the series. “Look, all the players in the team have performed well, it’s not that only one individual has performed well. But, we have to build that opportunity and security, so that each individual has confidence going forward into the tournaments. And, the people who have won the last World Cup, definitely have an idea of how to play T20, and continuously they have been the main pillars of that format. So, it’s very important to back them,” captain Shreyas Iyer said.
Again a fair assessment from a captain, who during his stint in the IPL as captain of three different franchises, preferred stability as against knee-jerk changes. On Wednesday, batting first, Samson went back cheaply and Ishan followed soon after a horrible mix-up with Abhishek. The pair are in the same place where Samson had found himself in December, where if Sooryavanshi takes one of their spots in Manchester they would put their hands up and say ‘the boy deserves it’.
The damage was mitigated on Wednesday, courtesy of Abhishek’s 24-ball 59. Of course, there is an argument that the team would have performed better with Sooryavanshi in the team. But those are ifs and buts. As Shreyas said, these players know how to play T20. These are the pillars of a team that has achieved what no other team in the world has managed to do – to successfully defend a World Cup. Sooryavanshi’s time would come. It could be in Manchester over the weekend. Or perhaps, later in the series. What is certain is it would happen only when the team management feels enough is enough. For having made them embrace a high-risk approach with the bat, it is only fair they back them when there are failures. Not dump them because there is an exciting prospect waiting in the wings.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi during the 1st T20I between India and England. (BCCI Photo) 
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