Shreyas Iyer & Gautam Gambhir swayed by social media fears Ashwin after Sanju Samson axe

On June 26, Shreyas Iyer stated that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will have to bide his time. The new India T20I captain and assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate iterated the same two days later. But one can’t forget that India lost a first-ever match and series to Ireland in the process.

Management walks back on decision

The same batting unit continued against England. The first game was washed out. Come the second match, Sooryavanshi was in the team and became the youngest-ever debutant for India. In 5 days, the management completely flipped. They changed their own tune.

After three lower scores – 5, 0 and 1 – Sanju Samson was out and in came Sooryavanshi. Why? Well, the teenager already had a case to begin with. He was the standout batter in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season, outperforming everyone. However, the management was adamant to stick with Abhishek Sharma and Samson.

3 failures later, that changed. Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin doesn’t agree with or appreciate the decision to drop Samson. He believes the wicketkeeper batter’s confidence will be shot, and going forward, he and Ishan Kishan will contest for the same spot.

“Right now, I’m concerned. I’m worried because Sanju Samson has been dropped from the team so quickly. What will Sanju be thinking now? How motivated will he be when he goes to practice in the nets? At the moment, you already have three left-handers in the top order: Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Ishan Kishan. Now, they will consider Sanju for No. 3, I’m telling you. Everyone knows, including the coaching staff and Gautam Gambhir, that this hasn’t been fair to Sanju. So now they’ll have to manage the situation somehow,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

Social media noise into play?

However, Ashwin’s biggest concern is whether the management is falling for the outside noise. Ever since Sooryavanshi was selected, many wanted Samson to get dropped for him. The calls became louder once Samson registered consecutive low scores. Ashwin fears that Shreyas and Gautam Gambhir have fallen victim to all the buzz online and made the decision because of it.

“I’m concerned about one thing. Are social media narratives and all the outside noise finding their way into the team? Is that influencing the decision-making? I’ve been watching cricket for a long time and have seen many leaders in the Indian team. They never allowed outside noise to enter the dressing room, and that’s exactly how it should be,” he said.

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