Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath has questioned the team management for not handling Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi properly in the T20I series against England. Samson was dropped from the final XI after he managed a solitary run in the opening game.
Earlier, Samson had returned with scores of 5 and 0 in two T20Is against Ireland. On the other hand, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was handed his much-awaited debut in the second game against England but the youngster was dismissed after scoring only 14 runs off 10 balls.
In the next two games, Sooryavanshi was dismissed after scoring 13 and 15. However, surprisingly he was dropped in the final game of the series on Saturday. Sanju Samson was brought back into the playing XI in Sooryavanshi’s place but the Kerala batter could score a cameo of 14-ball 27.
Badrinath reckons the team hasn’t given confidence to both Samson and Sooryavanshi.
“They dropped Samson after three failures and got Vaibhav Suryavanshi in. Then Suryavanshi gets the same treatment and you bring Samson back. By doing this, you’ve given neither Sanju nor Suryavanshi full confidence. No one knows if Samson or Suryavanshi is the certainty in the team. Lot of insecurity is created this way and its hard for players to perform in this environment,” said Badrinath (via the aforementioned source).
“Suryavanshi was almost in tears after being dropped for the final T20I. It was hard to look at his face. Some selections are baffling from the management. Samson is there for the Asian Games. So why is he not there just for the Zimbabwe series? It’s clear the Indian team struggles without these two. This T20 team looks totally different without them.”
The former CSK batter questioned Gautam Gambhir and co. for resting themselves for the Zimbabwe tour despite the IPL break.
He said, “Even Gautam Gambhir and his support staff are being rested for the Zimbabwe series with VVS Laxman taking charge. I don’t understand this, considering they just rested for two months during the IPL. They were at work only for the Ireland and England series.”
India and England will next take on each other in a three-match ODI series, starting Tuesday at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
