Team India took on New Zealand in the first of five T20I of the ongoing series. The two sides met at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch for the game, and the game saw India win the toss and opt to bowl first.
With skipper Shreyas Iyer revealing the playing XI, fans noticed the .
The youngster has not featured for India in quite some time now, and he missed the entirety of the recently concluded West Indies series as well, with many questioning his place in the side. Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik came forward with some advice.
Karthik opined that rather than warming the bench for the Men in Blue, Vaibhav Suryavanshi should get some playing time in domestic cricket and hone his skills there.
“If players not playing feel it’s better to play domestic cricket instead of warming the bench, there will only be 11 touring always. So that’s not going to happen. If you say Vaibhav shouldn’t be there when he’s not part of the 11 because he’s extra special, then what about the other five players? Why aren’t they so good that they can’t be sent home to play domestic cricket? There is no end to it,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.
Karthik branded Sooryavanshi as the backup for the openers
Furthermore, Karthik talked about how having backups in the side is crucial, branding Vaibhav Sooryavanshi as the backup to the duo of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. He opined that if it had been a Test series, Vaibhav could have gone on to play domestic cricket, but that is not possible in limited-overs cricket.
“It’s best to pick the best 16, and if anything happens to the openers or Ishan Kishan, Vaibhav will come in. He’s a backup option, and that’s a legitimate part of the squad. Now, if it’s a Test match in India over five days, a lot of times they send players to play domestic cricket. But in T20Is and ODIs, that’s not possible, especially when you are traveling,” said Karthik