Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s debut in focus against England

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s eagerly-awaited debut and the thoroughly exposed batting frailties on challenging wickets dominate the discourse on India as they take on England in a five-match T20 International series starting here on Wednesday.

India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has said that Sooryavanshi will have to “go through the process and bide his time” like any other cricketer to get a place in the eleven. At the same time, he had no hesitation in declaring that the 15-year-old swashbuckler seems ready for the grind.  But it remains to be seen whether the management will hold firm on its resolve that Sooryavanshi must follow the process amid the growing clamour to blood the explosive hitter.

Ten Doeschate was candid enough to admit that there is disbelief in the camp after being whitewashed 0-2 by Ireland last week and it could well become the trigger for drastic action.

The twin failure of Sanju Samson against Ireland offers them a perfect excuse to bench the opener and pair Sooryavanshi with Abhishek Sharma, who could be saved by that 20-ball 49 in the first T20I at Belfast. It could end up being the move that gives the visitors a strong start against England in the five-match series. Ishan Kishan also did not cover himself in glory during the two-match series against Ireland and was dismissed for 1, 12.

So, the management can bench any of those two to accommodate Sooryavanshi but they will ponder the possible effect such a move can have on the morale of the omitted batter.

If one takes the case of Samson, he had a wonderful run in the back-end of the T20 World Cup earlier this year and also scored two centuries for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.

However, the think tank led by chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir is not averse to taking some harsh calls, and those in doubt can re-read the Suryakumar Yadav story. They also handed debuts to Suryansh Shedge and Prince Yadav against Ireland, leaving Sooryavanshi waiting for his national cap.

Sooryavanshi is no quick fix: But then the inclusion of Sooryavanshi alone should not be viewed as a quick fix to India’s batting travails, which have many contours.

None of the Indian batters looked comfortable in the conditions at Belfast that offered considerable assistance to pacers. They looked like fishes out of the pond once routes to aggressive batting were blocked by conditions and spot-on Irish bowlers.

In the second T20I, Tilak Varma appeared to have aced the situation with a measured fifty but his patience too ran out after playing the hanging-in-there kind of cricket for 46 balls.

That impatience was the facemark of several other Indian batters too while chasing perfectly achievable targets like 183 and 155.

It required a slightly different mindset than batting on the flatbeds of IPL, but it was not coming through.

The Indian batters will need to adjust their conceptualisation and execution, as England will offer more or less the same conditions, and a better and more seasoned package of cricketers.

England have extreme pace in Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Saqib Mahmood, and Sonny Baker and wiliness in Aadil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed. That the average T20I score in the Riverside Ground is 138, with a highest of 195, hints at bowlers’ dominance across eight previous matches held here. So, if there is a delay from batters in adjusting to the rival attack and pitches here, then England can run away with the five-match series in the blink of an eye.

India’s new T20I captain Shreyas Iyer would certainly not want a second series defeat in a row.

England’s batting line-up too has some powerhouses in skipper Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Jordan Cox, Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Phil Salt and Tom Banton.

In both the T20Is against Ireland, the Indian bowlers let the rival batters off the hook in the middle overs after taking an initial grip.