‘Send him home’: Ex-cricketer’s blunt message to Gambhir over Sooryavanshi

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

Former India opener Aakash Chopra has questioned India’s decision to drop Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for the fourth T20I against New Zealand, urging the team management to clarify the youngster’s role and long-term future in the side.Chopra felt Sooryavanshi should not be viewed merely as a stand-in whenever an established player is unavailable. He also suggested that if the teenager is unlikely to get regular opportunities in the playing XI, he would be better off returning to domestic cricket, particularly first-class cricket, to gain match experience and spend more time batting in the middle.Sooryavanshi got his opportunities in the second and third T20Is after Ishan Kishan was sidelined by an injury. He scored 4 and 45 in those two outings before making way for Kishan, who returned to the side for the fourth match.Chopra pointed out that the fourth T20I was a dead rubber and felt the decision to leave Sooryavanshi out raised questions about India’s plans for the youngster.“Last match, Abhishek made 100 and Vaibhav missed his 50. But the batting was very good. After that, the question was, if Ishan is fit, who will go out. If you think philosophically, then the answer is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi since he replaced an injured Kishan. But this was a dead rubber,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.He questioned whether Sooryavanshi would only feature when another player was unavailable, adding that regular cricket would be more beneficial if he was not part of India’s immediate plans.

“The decision to drop Vaibhav Sooryavanshi leads to a bigger question. Will you play Vaibhav Sooryavanshi only when someone is injured? Or when someone is unavailable? If that is the case, you can send him home. You can tell him to go and play first-class cricket. Of course, he can learn by staying in the Indian dressing room. But if it’s happening for an extended period, he should get bat on ball,” he added.Chopra also called on the team management to make its thinking clear, saying that while a roadmap may already be in place, there has been little public clarity about Sooryavanshi’s role.“The team should come out and share what their roadmap and philosophy is. Maybe they have already thought about it and have already charted out a plan. But they haven’t told anybody. As such, we don’t know what they are going to do with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. His absence was a little disappointing,” Chopra said.Kishan, meanwhile, had a brief return to the side. He was dismissed for a duck as India failed to chase New Zealand’s target of 260, eventually finishing at 172/9.