Former Indian off-spinner and commentator Ravi Ashwin has reckoned that Sanju Samson has been doing enough to keep the teen batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi out of the Indian playing XI in T20Is.
Notably, Samson managed to score 96 runs in three games in the ongoing five-match T20I series against the West Indies, including his highest score of 82 in the second T20I in Ranchi. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin shared his views on the selection battle between Samson and Sooryavanshi.
“I just feel Sanju is doing enough at the moment to keep Vaibhav out of the team. Unfortunately, Vaibhav should be given an opportunity. But what can we do? Such things happen in life. This battle between the two is going on because the Indian team management and everyone know that Abhishek Sharma cannot be touched. Abhishek Sharma is an exceptional player. If his bat gets going, he always wins matches for India,” Ashwin said.
Further, Ashwin showered praise on the dashing opening batter Abhishek Sharma for scoring runs consistently on difficult wickets over the last two or three months, adding that he loves watching the opener bat.
“He is a fabulous player. He will keep learning little by little. And what I am seeing as a big positive is that he has been scoring runs on difficult wickets over the last two or three months. This tells me that his graph is moving upwards. He is not stagnating, nor is he going down. So, Abhishek Sharma is a fabulous player, and I have a lot of time for him. I always enjoy watching him play because of his style, grace, and timing. He makes it look so easy,” he added.
India’s T20I squad vs WI: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan [WK], Sanju Samson [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Naman Dhir
