Former Indian cricket team skipper Kris Srikkanth was left fuming at the team management for how they handled 15-year-old sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi during the T20I series against Ireland and England.
The youngster did not play a single game against Ireland and was dropped from the side after playing three games against England. Srikkanth launched a scathing attack on captain Shreyas Iyer and specifically pointed out the way he defended the decision to drop Sooryavanshi. Srikkanth was extremely disappointed by Iyer’s comments at the toss during the fifth T20I match, where he said, “I feel this is the time we need to try what’s the best going forward for us as a team. So based on that, we decided this.”
Srikkanth believed that it was not the right way to handle the situation and even questioned Iyer’s performance.
“I was so upset with the interview after the toss,” Srikkanth said on YouTube.
“This is not the way to talk. How you are treating your players, how you are forming a young team is important. If this is the way forward, the way forward is to change everybody (the leadership group). He said we want to take the best way forward. If you are willing to drop players based on their performance, the same yardstick should apply to Gautam Gambhir, the same yardstick should apply to the captain also. You are saying the players are not performing, what has been your performance?”
“What wrong did Vaibhav Sooryavanshi do? Is this how you groom young players?”
Srikkanth even drew parallels to his own time as India captain when he handed an international debut to a 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar during the tour of Pakistan.
“Shreyas Iyer said at the toss ‘we want to get back to the best way possible’. Is this your best way forward? What is this interview? If you thought Sanju Samson was the best fit, then you should have continued with him. Why bring in Vaibhav and then drop him? Why spoil his future? You are all ruining his confidence. When Sachin Tendulkar made his debut at 16, I went up and told him ‘you won’t be dropped in this tour. You play fearlessly’.”
“Should Gambhir and Shreyas not give Sooryavanshi that kind of confidence? It’s not fair. I am very upset with the way they are treating Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.”