Why Sooryavanshi was dropped: Iyer

Team India made the strange call to drop Vaibhav Sooryavanshi from the playing XI for the fifth and final T20I of the series against England. Sanju Samson

replaced him. Given that Samson isn't part of the Zimbabwe series, he was expected to stay out once again. But the team management dropped Sooryavanshi, who looks set to face the new ball in Zimbabwe. Speaking to the press after the fixture, Shreyas Iyer revealed the reason behind dropping Sooryavanshi. The India captain opined that they wanted a right-hander to open with Abhishek Sharma. Hence, Sooryavanshi was dropped. "We needed to try the best combination that would be perfect for these conditions. And we also wanted a right-hander to open with Abhishek. So, that was one of the major reasons. As I mentioned earlier, we wanted to try a different combination that would be suitable for this particular game. And he's (Samson) a gun batsman. He has won so many series for us in the past," Iyer said. Samson got off to a quick start in the chase to the big target of 258. He failed to convert his start into a big knock and departed for 27 off 14 balls. Batting with a strike rate of 192.86, Samson hit two sixes and three fours in his knock. Samson was dropped after the first T20I and he remained on the bench for three games. After scoring five runs against Ireland, Samson managed to score 28 runs in two innings against England.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's performance against England

After being on the bench against Ireland, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made his much-awaited India debut in the 2nd T20I of the series. He scored 14, 13 and 15 in the three innings he played. He was dropped from the playing XI for the fifth T20I.

The left-handed batter is part of the T20I squad for the Zimbabwe series and the Asian Games. He has 42 runs in three games.