Vaibhav Sooryavanshi shattered the record books in India’s first T20I against Zimbabwe on Thursday, becoming the youngest player ever to slam their maiden T20I half-century.
After failing to cross 15 in his first three senior games for India, Sooryavanshi came good on his fourth outing, hammering an 18-ball fifty. Following Sooryavanshi’s explosive knock, former BCCI selector and 1983 World Cup-winner Krishnamachari Srikkanth expressed surprise that the 15-year-old had been dropped from the Indian side after just three failures in the England series.
After scores of 14, 13 and 15 in three games against England, Sooryavanshi was left out for the fifth T20I of the tour.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir, who is not with the team for the Zimbabwe series, was slammed by Srikkanth for dropping Sooryavanshi.
“He (Sooryavanshi) has an effortless range of shots, yet, not one shot was cross-batted. This boy is really something special. How did Gautam Gambhir foolishly drop him, of all people, after three failures to crush his confidence?” said Srikkanth, speaking on his YouTube channel, as quoted by Sportskeeda.
In Gambhir’s absence, it is legendary India Test batter VVS Laxman who is stepping in to take charge.
“I salute Vaibhav for his dedication. After the England series, he didn’t go home and instead went straight to the Rajasthan Royals camp. He has been working on his batting against the short ball because he wants to prove to the whole world that he is special,” Srikkanth added.
Srikkanth heaped praise on Sooryavanshi for sticking to his naturally aggressive style of batting despite three successive failures.
“The ease at which he scores at a 250 strike rate is extraordinary. Normally, after three failures, other players would have tried to safeguard their place in the Indian team by taking singles and twos. But he played fearlessly without worrying about the consequences. Scoring a 50 off 18 balls has become child’s play for him. That’s his greatness,” Srikkanth elaborated.