India have decided against giving a debut to 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in today’s first T20I against Ireland. The teenager became the youngest to be picked in the squad for this two-match series
in Belfast and was expected to make his debut in the first match after his record-breaking performances in IPL 2026.
However, new captain Shreyas Iyer at the toss echoed the words of batting coach Sitanshu Kotak. He said while Sooryavanshi was a ‘gun’ player, the team did not want to tinker with the ‘tremendously’ experienced combination that won the 2026 men’s T20 World Cup.
“Unfortunately, no,” Shreyas said when asked about whether Sooryavanshi’s name was on the team sheet. “He’s a gun player. But obviously, we’ve got tremendous experience in the squad who have done brilliantly in the past couple of series for India. So we are backing the majority of our cricketers who have been doing absolutely marvellous throughout the season. He’ll get his opportunity when the time comes.”
Had Sooryavanshi been given his debut, he would have become the youngest to play a T20 international for a full-member nation. But even as the anticipation was building around the historic day, Kotak had indicated the team’s thought process beforehand.
“I am sure that he will get his dues and his opportunities,” Kotak said in the pre-match press conference. “So I don’t think that just to give him an opportunity, we should drop someone who has already been scoring runs. That also won’t be right. Obviously, it depends on the team management… what we plan to do in this match. That is a different thing. But I think it is a very thin line between trying to give somebody an opportunity and being unfair to some other player,” he added.
India’s playing 11 without Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson(w), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna
Why Vaibhav Sooryavanshi not getting his debut is good for him?
While Sooryavanshi and his fans would feel hard done by this decision, especially considering he was better than all other players currently in the 11, there’s a silver lining in this. Sooryavanshi has been playing relentless cricket since the start of the year. Soon after IPL, while Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma got a break, he was playing the India A series in Sri Lanka.
At this age, it’s not bad for him to just be around the team, recover his body and be ready for when the first chance eventually comes.
![[WATCH] Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's first training session with India's senior squad](https://g-mob.glance-cdn.com/public/fc/image/NkbYTmvnldP0.webp)
