3 min readNew DelhiSep 13, 2026 07:58 PM IST
India’s most recent T20I Player of the Match, at the time of writing, is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. After failing to make much of an impression in four of his first five T20Is, Sooryavanshi finally offered a glimpse of the hype that he has remarkably garnered at only 15. Fans hoping for an encore will have to wait, though, for he has been dropped from the playing XI on the back of a half-century.
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On July 26, the wunderkind struck a 49-ball 81 in the third T20I against Zimbabwe in Harare. What stood out was not the runs themselves — though not international cricket, he has already shown at the IPL that he is capable of scoring centuries. Nor was it his strike rate, which at 165.30 paled next to his career IPL strike rate of 228.95.
What earned him praise instead was his ability to unlock a gear unfamiliar to his usual game. Having managed just 112 runs in his first five T20Is at an average of 22.4, Sooryavanshi had given skeptics reason to brand him a one-trick pony whose only currency was boundaries. In that innings, though, he showed he could rotate strike when needed, respect the good deliveries, and resist swinging through the line on every ball.
It was, in cricketing parlance, a “mature” knock — and India’s interim head coach for the series, VVS Laxman, praised him for exactly that.
“What is really impressive is the way he’s evolved as a person. The maturity level, the understanding, and the awareness over the last six months has actually skyrocketed. And that’s why he’s been able to handle tough situations,” Laxman said.
Having finally shown his true potential on the sixth attempt, it would have been reasonable to expect an extended run in the side, with the team sticking to a winning combination. Instead, in a surprising call, Sooryavanshi has been left out of the XI for the first match of the three-game T20I series, with Sanju Samson coming in for him.
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The decision is made more surprising by the fact that Samson himself had only just been reintegrated into the side. The wicketkeeper-batter, who was the architect of India’s 2026 T20 World Cup triumph, had been axed for the Zimbabwe tour, with selectors opting for Prabhsimran Singh instead, though she never got a game.
With an Asian Games gold medal to defend and a packed T20I schedule ahead, settling on a clear batting identity would serve the team well. One possible explanation is the niggle Ishan Kishan has been managing, with Samson keeping wicket in this match. However, captain Shreyas Iyer did not mention the reason behind Sooryavanshi’s omission.