Former India cricketer Saba Karim is vehemently against Vaibhav Sooryavanshi being seen as the replacement for Sanju Samson in India’s T20I set-up, reminding of the latter’s ‘fabulous’ qualities and his performance in the 2026 men’s T20 World Cup only a few months ago.
India have been carrying 15-year-old Sooryavanshi with the squad through the two T20Is against Ireland and the rain-marred series opener against England on Wednesday. However, the team has seemed determined not to hand him a debut just yet, instead playing the bilaterals with the seriousness of a multi-nation tournament and backing the World Cup-winning trio of Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan.
Among the three, Samson has had the worst time so far, failing to cross double
digits in all three matches. That has been a hallmark of his game, with his previous three internationals being match-winning half-centuries in the World Cup’s three biggest games.
“I don’t think so at this stage, Karim said on Star Sports about the possible switch. “Sanju Samson is a fabulous player. He has been a match-winner. He had a very good IPL season. Before that, he was the Player of the Tournament in the T20 World Cup. What are we looking at? Sanju Samson would be thinking, ‘Why is everyone pointing the gun at me?'” he said.
Karim repeated the team management’s stance that Sooryavanshi should ‘bide his time’ and it’ll help him learn and grow as a player.
“Even for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, this is a good learning curve. He also gets to understand that to get into this Indian team XI, you have to earn your call-up. This environment will help him to grow as a player and as a human being. Although he has got such an incredible amount of talent, when you get into such a competitive environment, you need to bide your time,” he added.
India and England will meet for the second T20I on Saturday.
