Former Indian opener Sadagoppan Ramesh has asserted that the teen batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi should have opened the innings in the second T20I against New Zealand, which India won by four wickets.
Notably, Sooryavanshi was drafted into the playing XI with Ishan Kishan being ruled out of the game due to an injury. However, the 15-year-old batter was slotted in the XI at No.3, which didn’t go down well with Ramesh.
“He should have opened. As a youngster, as soon as the management told him that he would bat at No.3, he would have panicked. He played only because Ishan Kishan was injured. Though it wasn’t wrong of the management not to break the opening combination, Sooryavanshi doesn’t have the experience at No.3. His strength is batting at 0/0 with the anticipation of whether he’s going to hit a six or four off his first delivery,” Ramesh said on his Instagram handle.
Unfortunately, Sooryavanshi couldn’t create an impact in the 181-run chase, scoring only four off eight balls before getting out off Nathan Smith. Further, Ramesh reckoned that Sooryavanshi’s batting style has been one where he smashes the opposition bowlers in the powerplay and continues that momentum in the middle overs.
“His batting style has been one where he smashes it in the powerplay and then continues with that momentum in the middle overs. When he is already young and is new to the pressure of international cricket, it would have been ideal to play him at a position he’s comfortable at,” he added.
Ramesh concluded that Sooryavanshi performs best when given the freedom to build an innings from the start, rather than being asked to respond to an existing situation at No. 3. While Sanju Samson has experience batting at No. 3 in a one-off match, Ramesh felt that Sooryavanshi looked tense when he came to the crease after being assigned that role.
“Batters like him are best when they are asked to create the situation at 0/0. But when he is sent out to bat at No.3, he’s asked to react to a situation. He needn’t have reacted, but unfortunately he reacted to it under pressure, and that’s why he got out. Samson has the experience of batting at No.3 in a one-off match. But once Sooryavanshi was tasked with that, it was clear that he came to the crease tense,” Ramesh concluded.
