Although both captain Shreyas Iyer and assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate had already hinted that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi would need to wait for his turn, it still came as a shock to the Indian fans that the 15-year-old teenage sensation was benched in the 1st T20I against England.
The five-match IND vs ENG T20I rubber got underway on Wednesday evening at Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street, with Iyer winning the toss and electing to bat first. This is the first time since November 2024 that India opted to bat first after winning the toss in a T20I outside Asia.
England had already announced their playing XI a day before the game, while India rang in a couple of changes to their side that went down by 1 run against Ireland in Belfast in the IND vs IRE 2nd T20I.
Surprisingly, India went in with three spinners: Varun Chakaravarthy, who is back from a foot injury, and Ravi Bishnoi replaced Prince Yadav and Suryansh Shedge. This meant India had only two frontline seamers in Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh, with Shivam Dube’s medium pace to boot.
But the talking point among the Indian fans was the exclusion of Sooryavanshi, who was the Orange Cap winner in an epic IPL 2026 season where he broke Chris Gayle’s record for the most sixes in a single edition.
In Ireland, India had decided to stick with their successful opening combination of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma, but Samson had come under the scanner, not so much because of his low scores in Ireland but more so owing to Sooryavanshi being on the bench.
The theme carried on in England as India didn’t change their batting personnel at the top. However, pressure on Samson is now going to mount further as he departed for only 1 run off 7 balls in the IND vs ENG 1st T20I, where speedster Saqib Mahmood had Samson caught at backward point.
IND vs ENG: Angry Indian Fans React As Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Benched In 1st T20I
Indian cricket team fans were upset over Sooryavanshi’s omission from the 1st T20I against England. Fans expressed their rage on Twitter through strongly worded tweets against the team management headed by Gambhir and Iyer. Some fans even claimed that they wouldn’t be watching today’s game since the youngster is not playing.
Check out some of the tweets by Indian fans on Sooryavanshi’s exclusion:
India vs England Playing XIs 1st T20I:
England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Tom Banton (wk), Harry Brook (C), Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Luke Wood
India: Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Shreyas Iyer (C), Tilak Varma, Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Earlier, Iyer had suggested that the players who contributed to winning the T20 World Cup should be backed and provided security, indirectly reminding everyone of Samson’s Man of the Tournament performance.
“We have to build that opportunity and security so that each individual has confidence going forward into the tournaments. The players who have won the last World Cup definitely have an idea of how to play T20, and continuously they have been the main pillars of that format, so it’s very important to back them,” Iyer said.
Ten Doeschate had said after the Ireland series defeat that Vaibhav will have to “go through the same process as everyone else and, you know, bide his time and wait.”
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