Former India captain and chief selector Kris Srikkanth has publicly criticised the Indian team management for leaving out 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi from the playing XI for the first T20I against Afghanistan on September 13, 2026, in Delhi. India opened with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma in that match instead.
Sooryavanshi had been named Player of the Series in India’s previous T20I series against Zimbabwe, where he scored 151 runs at a strike rate of 196.10. His omission from the first Afghanistan game drew sharp public reaction, including from Srikkanth, who made his views known.
“Yesterday, because Sooryavanshi didn’t play, we started watching a movie. My wife was shouting that Sooryavanshi didn’t play and started arguing that someone who was the Player of the Match in the last match isn’t playing. Even my wife is questioning his exclusion. You are not treating Sooryavanshi properly. Now, if he plays the next match, he’ll wonder whether he’ll be dropped if he doesn’t score,” Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
Why did Srikkanth question the team management’s approach?
Srikkanth’s criticism extended beyond Sooryavanshi’s exclusion to what he described as inconsistent selection decisions affecting multiple players. He pointed specifically to the handling of Sanju Samson as an example of the same pattern.
“This team management is playing around with Sanju Samson. I pity Samson. Either you give him an extended run and then drop him or give Vaibhav Sooryavanshi a run of matches without dropping him. The mistake India are making is both are getting two matches here and there. That’s not good for the player,” he added.
Samson was dropped after the first T20I in England in July, returned three games later for the series finale, and was then left out of the T20I squad for the Zimbabwe series entirely before being recalled for the Afghanistan series opener, where he scored 10 runs off 8 balls.
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Abhishek Sharma, who opened alongside Samson in the first T20I against Afghanistan, scored 82 runs with the bat.
What is Sooryavanshi’s recent international record?
Sooryavanshi’s form in the Zimbabwe T20I series made his omission from the Afghanistan opener a talking point. The 15-year-old accumulated 151 runs across the series at a strike rate of 196.10, performances that earned him the Player of the Series award.
Despite that showing, the team management chose to field Samson and Abhishek Sharma as openers for the first game of the Afghanistan series.
