The wait goes on. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, a 15-year-old, needs to wait a little longer to earn his maiden India cap and become the youngest-ever debutant for Team India. After the loss in the series opener against Ireland, one expected to see the left-hander in the playing XI for the second and final match; however, it wasn’t meant to be. Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar wasn’t a fan of the decision to leave out Sooryavanshi, saying the management did not make a “good cricketing call” by leaving out the youngster for the series decider.
“It’s not a good cricketing decision. Actually, I am not jumping on the Vaibhav Sooryavanshi bandwagon. India wanted a good middle-order batter after what happened in the first T20I. The openers firing is not enough. You also want the batters following firing. That was an area where India needed a pure batter in,” said Manjrekar on the Sony Sports Network.
“The way to get Vaibhav in was to get him to open and have Sanju in the middle-order. I am just not happy. I would have wanted Vaibhav to open,” he added.
For the second T20I against Ireland, India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl. The visitors handed debut caps to Prince Yadav and Suryansh Shedge, but Sooryavanshi was made to wait for his debut, and it needs to be seen whether the 15-year-old gets a go in the five-match T20I series against England.
Earlier, the world expected Sooryavanshi to make his debut in the first T20I against Ireland, but it wasn’t to be, as the team management opted for the T20 World Cup-winning opening duo of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. The left-handed Abhishek smashed 49 runs off 19 balls in the opening match, while Samson got out cheaply, lasting just four balls in the middle, scoring five runs.
The first T20I, which India lost by 34 runs, also saw Sooryavanshi carrying drinks. After the loss in the series opener, Abhishek Sharma revealed how the youngster is going about his business and how he wants to learn at every minute.
“As a team, I think it’s our responsibility to make him comfortable. And obviously, he is a young guy, and what I felt was that he is very curious to play all the time. He is just learning right now. He asks questions, so I feel he has that in himself, where he wants to learn a lot of things, and obviously, it’s a dream for him too. So we are trying our best to make him feel that he belongs in the group,” Abhishek told reporters.
Sooryavanshi blitz
Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old from Samastipur, Bihar, made his entry into the India squad for the tours of Ireland and England after a swashbuckling performance in the IPL 2026, where he smashed 776 runs at a strike rate of 237.31.
When the youngster was named in the squad, the BCCI secretary, Devajit Saikia, confirmed to Hindustan Times Digital that his parents would accompany him to the UK, as the board wants Sooryavanshi to have no trouble acclimatising to the conditions.
Before the Ireland tour, Sooryavanshi also represented India A, led by Tilak Varma, in the Tri-Nation A series. He smashed the fastest List A fifty in the final against Sri Lanka A off just 11 balls. He eventually went on to score 94 runs off 29 balls with 10 fours and eight sixes.
The contest against Sri Lanka A prior to the final also saw the youngster lose his cool with a player, pushing him away. A lot of verbal volleys were exchanged between the two, and it all ended with Sooryavanshi shoving the other player.
