IND vs IRE: BCCI urged to persist with Samson-Abhishek as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi lights up IPL 2026

8 hours ago 21

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is an anomaly. A 15-year-old isn’t expected to exchange blows against the world’s best cricketer. Yet, he dominates them. Just yesterday, Sooryavanshi utterly dominated Pat Cummins, one of the world’s finest fast bowlers. Prior to the match, Cummins had talked about concocting multiple plans against Sooryavanshi.

Cummins wasn’t bluffing. The Sunrisers Hyderabad started the game with a barrage of yorkers, but the first plan and the ones that followed them didn’t work. Sooryavanshi smashed 97 off 29, including scoring 30 off 8 against Cummins. He broke a flurry of records.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s time will come

Expectedly, most now want the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to grant Sooryavanshi his India debut. Considering the Men in Blue will tour Ireland at the end of June for 2 T20I matches, that might be the perfect time for the 15-year-old to don the blues.

Former India batter Aakash Chopra was in awe of Sooryavanshi but thinks people are jumping the gun. You can’t help but admit that he’s special, perhaps a once-in-a-century cricketer like Sachin Tendulkar was. But despite him outdoing Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season, Aakash doesn’t think he should play ahead of them.

“We are still 2 years away from the next (T20) World Cup. There will be time. Yes, it’s exciting. It’s something that is there which you cannot possibly ignore because IPL is India’s best T20 tournament. So, if somebody is just breaking records, shattering records, you’ve got to take it seriously, and this kid is special. There’s no doubt about it. But then you just don’t make changes for the sake of making changes because somebody else has done well,” Aakash said on his YouTube channel.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma & Sanju Samson in IPL 2026

	Innings	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi	15	680	103	45.33	242.85	1	4
Abhishek Sharma	15	563	135*	40.21	204.72	1	4
Sanju Samson	14	477	115*	43.36	165.62	2	1

Abhishek-Samson should continue

One can’t forget that Samson and Abhishek have been the best batters for India since July 2024, when the new T20 World Cup cycle commenced. Both proved that in the recent edition of the ICC tournament, which India won at home. Samson’s 97*, 89, and 89 earned him the player of the tournament award, while Abhishek ended his struggles with a blistering 18-ball half-century.

Both haven’t done anything wrong to warrant a sacking. They’ve worked hard and earned their stripes. Aakash believes the selection committee understands that well, and despite the general public wanting Sooryavanshi to play in the India vs Ireland series, they’ll wait on him and persist with Abhishek and Samson.

“It’s very simple for somebody to go out; you need to fail that exam. If somebody’s a topper already, how can you just replace the topper because you think somebody else will actually get more grades? I mean, he is a topper. You’re talking about Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. You’re not replacing them right now because if you were to do that, I can give you in writing, in two or three years, and if Sooryavanshi goes through a bad patch, you’re going to follow the same principle.

So, Ajit Agarkar, RP Singh, and Pragyan Ojha will face a lot of scrutiny and pressure, but they need to do what is right for Indian cricket, and he represents Indian cricket. He’s not Indian cricket. I mean, he is a part of Indian cricket, and I think that fact is not lost on any of the selectors, and they’ll do the right thing, but it doesn’t have to happen tomorrow. It can take time. He’s 20 years ahead of him, so there’s no rush,” he added.