New Delhi, June 29: It is no longer a question of when to slot Vaibhav Sooryavanshi into the Indian playing eleven against England at Chester-Le-Street on July 1.
Rather it is the question of how you fit in a generational talent for whom the paying public is ready to queue up at the turnstiles at least three hours before the start of an international game.
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.
The twin defeat against Ireland has been such a shocker that now the question of not playing Sooryavanshi doesn’t even arise unless the team management headlined by Gautam Gambhir remains obstinate that Samson-Abhishek duo is irreplaceable.
Selections aren’t ever straightforward as it seems but the Team India think-tank will have to find a plausible solution when it plays the five-match series in England where the wickets are expected to be slightly flatter going by how it has behaved in summers during 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,” legendary Sunil Gavaskar said on Aaj Tak.But Gavaskar put it straight that you can no longer wait to play Sooryavanshi.“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,” Gavaskar said.Now let’s look at what are the options available for Team India to slot in Sooryavanshi.
If the think-tank doesn’t want to disturb the Samson-Abhishek combination, then batters from Ishan Kishan will have to drop down a slot — 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.Assuming that Suryansh Shedge would be dropped during that first game against England.From Nos 5 to 8, one can be flexible depending on match situation and need for left-right combination but then it creates a problem.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 could be a sixth bowler in the T20 set-up and there starts the real problem.
All of India’s T20 batting heroes are ones who throw their willows in top 3 in IPL knowing that there is an Impact Player as a cushion. The moment they play on tracks that has something on offer and some questions come out of syllabus, it poses a problem for them.
The Indian batting having played on tracks resembling ‘National Highways’ have become a team that employs ‘One Size Fits All’ strategy where they don’t have a plan B if attack at all costs doesn’t work.
Hence if one wants to play Samson-Abhishek and Sooryavanshi in same playing eleven, one has to either sacrifice Ishan Kishan or Tilak Varma in order to ensure that five specialist bowlers and not four with two bits and pieces all-rounders who are in ‘neither here nor there kind’ of bracket.
Case in point Shedge bowling and Washington’s batting in T20s.
However the most logical solution would be to drop Samson even if it irks the millions of Malayali fans across the globe including passionate cricket lover turned politician Shashi Tharoor, who wouldn’t take dropping Samson from the eleven lying down.
Samson scored 5 and a first ball duck in the two games against Ireland respectively and looked out of sync in slightly bowler friendly condition where his technique gets 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 or disappointment and that’s perfectly acceptable looking at bigger picture. (PTI)
