India's captain in the T20 format, Shreyas Iyer, stated that the young talent Vaibhav Suryavanshi cannot yet enter the starting lineup of the T20I team. He noted that Suryavanshi must wait for his opportunities, as Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson consistently score runs as the leading opening pair.
Despite Suryavanshi moving up to the highest level after an impressive performance in the IPL and U19 cricket, the Indian team faced a dilemma choosing between this energetic teenager and the experienced Samson at the top of the order to play alongside explosive Abhishek Sharma.
Suryavanshi participated in eight T20I matches, all of which were played abroad because India used a proven top-three lineup at home.
Iyer emphasized the importance of a talent like Suryavanshi always feeling comfortable in the dressing room. He added: 'He is very young; he still has many years to get opportunities. It's not that he can come in right now because our players at the start of the match are scoring consistently, and they won the World Cup.' He continued: 'I constantly tell him that you will get a chance; if you are consistent in your processes, sometimes you have to wait. We have two fantastic players at the top, and that is a conversation we had with Vaibhav,' Iyer said ahead of the T20I series against New Zealand.
In the recent T20I series against West Indies, India played with almost the same lineup throughout all four matches, featuring Samson, Abhishek, and Ishan Kishan in the top three. This meant that the 15-year-old player was forced to sit on the bench in all these matches, and he has not yet played internationally on his home ground.
When the experienced fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to the Indian T20I squad after an almost four-year break, Iyer felt that Bhuvneshwar's return would give the team momentum in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, which starts on Thursday in Christchurch. Iyer noted: 'Bhuvvi, as you said, brings a lot of experience to the team. We lacked that; especially after the IPL we had many new bowlers. If you look at Bhuvvi's career trajectory over the last two years, he also won the IPL, so he knows perfectly how to dominate in this format.'