In the 5th T20I against England, India made a flip back to their first-choice opening combination of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma, with the right-hander replacing the 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
The Indian team management, headed by new skipper Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir, reverted to type at the top of the order as the Men in Blue hoped to gain their first victory after five defeats on their trip of the UK in what is the last of their 7-match T20I tour.
Throughout this tour, there have been huge discussions and debates over Samson vs Sooryavanshi.
Samson was the Player of the Tournament at the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 in February-March and had a good debut IPL season for CSK, where he struck two centuries. However, he had a poor return to India colors with scores of 5, 0, and 1 in the two T20Is against Ireland and the first match against England.
Samson was dropped in the second IND vs ENG T20I for Sooryavanshi, who was coming off a historic IPL campaign wherein he blasted Chris Gayle’s record for the most sixes in a single edition of the tournament and plundered over 700 runs at a strike rate of 237.
However, the youngster couldn’t replicate his fireworks on the bouncy and slower English pitches as Jofra Archer and co. ruffled him with short balls. Archer dismissed Sooryavanshi twice with bumpers, breaking into the southpaw’s chink in his armor. Sooryavanshi couldn’t go past 15 in either of his three innings before being dropped for Samson in the 5th T20I.
IND vs ENG: Why was Vaibhav Sooryavanshi dropped in the 5th T20I for Sanju Samson? Shreyas Iyer explains
After making 14, 13, and 15, Sooryavanshi was dropped from India’s playing XI for the 5th T20I against England, with Samson returning to the side. Captain Iyer said at the toss that the selection change has been made in view of the future.
Speaking about dropping Sooryavanshi, Iyer 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.”
Apart from the Sooryavanshi-Samson swap, India also made a change in their all-rounders, replacing Washington Sundar with Suryansh Shedge.
In the 5th T20I against England, Iyer and Gambhir would be looking to avoid the embarrassment of a whitewash. India have never been whitewashed in a T20I series of three or more matches.
Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl, which is a surprising decision given the last five T20Is in Southampton were won by the side batting first.
IND vs ENG Playing XIs for 5th T20I:
India: Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Prince Yadav, Shreyas Iyer (C), Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Prasidh Krishna
England: Jos Buttler (wk), Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (C), Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Will Jacks, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue
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