The handling of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Sanju Samson has been far from professional: Mohammad Kaif

Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif has asserted that the Indian team management, headed by Gautam Gambhir, didn’t handle Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Sanju Samson professionally in the just-concluded five-match T20I series against England.

While Samson was part of the initial two games of the series, he was dropped for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the opening spot. However, Sooryavanshi was axed from the XI for the final T20I to bring Samson back to the spot. 

“Never seen a more confused Indian cricket team management. The handling of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Sanju Samson has been far from professional. One is a generational talent, another World Cup winner – they need to be given confidence, not doubts in their minds,” Kaif said on X.

On the other hand, Indian T20I captain Shreyas Iyer explained the reasoning behind bringing back Sanju in place of Sooryavanshi in the fifth and final T20I, revealing that the team management wanted to go ahead with a right and left-handed opening pair. 

“We needed to try the best combination that would be perfect in these conditions. And we also wanted a right-hander to go on with Abhishek (Sharma). So, that was one of the major reasons. And if you see, I was the only one out of all the left-handers who was a right-hander,” Iyer said in the post-match press conference.

“So, as I mentioned earlier, we wanted to try a different combination which would be suitable for this particular game. And he’s a gun batsman. He has won so many series for us in the past. So, yeah, one of those reasons,” he added.

India will next lock horns with England in the three-match ODI series, starting on Tuesday, July 14, at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Later, they will take on Zimbabwe in the three-match T20I series away from home.