Belfast: India’s 15-year-old left-arm opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi did not make the cut in the playing XI for the first T20I of the two-match series against Ireland at the Civil Service Cricket Club on Friday.
During last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL), he scored a 35-ball century for inaugural champions Rajasthan Royals, becoming the youngest player since Sachin Tendulkar in the late 1980s to be selected for the Indian men’s cricket team when the IPL was announced recently.
Suriyavanshi, who has played 34 T20Is so far, has amassed 1477 runs at an average of 44.75 and a mammoth strike rate of 220.44 with 4 centuries and 6 fifties, however, did not debut in the series. Was instrumental in their successful ICC Men’s T20 World Cup defense earlier this year.
Notably, Shreyas Iyer replaced World Cup winner Suryakumar Yadav on his T20 captaincy debut and the 31-year-old explained that after winning the toss and opting to field first, the T20 World Cup winners were keen to back their part in their recent success.
When asked about Suriyavanshi’s inclusion in India’s line-up, Iyer said, “Unfortunately, no.”
“He’s a gunslinger. But obviously, we’ve got a lot of experience in the team that has done well in the last two series for India.
“So, we back most of our cricketers who have played absolutely brilliantly throughout the season.
“So, I think he is out of leg-stump and he will get a chance when the time comes. But for now, we are going with three genuine seamers, one all-rounder and two spinners.”
India will play XI in the first T20 against Ireland
Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (week), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (catch), Thilak Varma, Shivam Dubey, Akshar Patel, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh and Prasith Krishna.