Gautam Gambhir opened up on the decision to hand Vaibhav Sooryavanshi his debut for India during the series against England and claimed it gave him the only sleepless night of his tenure as the head coach of the Indian cricket team.
For those unversed, the 15-year-old got his maiden cap at the cost of Sanju Samson, who was dropped from the playing XI just three games after winning the Player of the Tournament (POTM) in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.
Gambhir claimed that he had an honest conversation with Samson on the matter and called it the toughest decision he has taken. The 44-year-old explained that with the team struggling on the tour of the United Kingdom (UK), they wanted to make use of Suryavanshi’s red-hot form.
“In two years of my journey, that was the only night I could not sleep, and I told this to Sanju because I knew that it was probably the toughest decision in my coaching tenure in the T20 format. Someone who was the Player of the Tournament, and then you have to leave him out after three or four games. And the reason was probably that Vaibhav was in that kind of form as well, and we had to win the series,” Speaking to JioStar ahead of India’s home season, Head Coach Gautam Gambhir shared his thoughts.
“Because ultimately you are there and, when you are playing for India or coaching India, you want to win each and every series possible. I had a very, very honest conversation with him and told him that was one of the reasons why. Vaibhav was in that kind of form, and we needed someone to score runs at the top. We needed that little bit of a platform at the top as well. And he was fine with it. That’s a conversation that Sanju and I had, and he took it in good spirits,” Gambhir added.
‘Made Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Understand’
However, India went back to opening with Samson and Abhishek Sharma in the recently concluded series against Afghanistan, which has led to Sooryavanshi warming the bench. Gambhir claimed he has discussed the situation with the teenager and explained to him that he will have to wait for his chance.
“I know it is (tough). But then, I made him understand that I know you’re in good form, but sometimes players who have done well for a long time will have to wait for their opportunity. There’s one more thing: social media or outside noise doesn’t decide the playing XI. The playing XI is decided by who, in that dressing room, the coach and captain feel can win us the match, what the best playing XI is, and who has done well for such a long time. Because if Vaibhav plays today, then it’s going to be a tough conversation between me and whoever we leave out, whether it’s Abhishek or Sanju,” Gambhir stated.
“So we can’t suddenly ignore a combination that has created such an impact over the last one and a half to two years, and after three or four failures drop them and play a young player who is very talented and also in very good form. So sometimes you will have to wait for your opportunity, and we still want to create that security in the dressing room. Because it is very easy for me to take popular decisions, but it is probably much tougher for me to take the right decisions, and we’ve taken the right decision by continuing with Sanju and Abhishek,” the Indian head coach concluded.
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