Vaibhav Sooryavanshi won the Player of the Series in Zimbabwe T20i series.
Former Indian cricket team spinner R Ashwin addressed his statement that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi should 'serve drinks' to his teammates when not playing. He clarified that his words were not said in a derogatory manner.
During the T20I series against England, the young player had a difficult debut. but excelled in the three-match Twenty20 International series against Zimbabwe, scoring two half-centuries and winning Player of the Series.
Ashwin clarified that the comment was not meant to be disparaging and that the 15-year-old phenom would benefit from spending some time on the bench.
“I had said earlier that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi ‘can spend time, can serve someone drinks, can sit outside.' It was not in a derogatory manner. I was saying that he will get so much to learn. He has such a huge learning curve to go through that if he observes it while sitting outside, he'll become even better. Don't talk about dropping or picking — let him be, let him evolve. He'll be a really phenomenal player," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin said that not many bowlers were able to bother Sooryavanshi and added that people cannot 'write his obituary'.
“Who do you think is the strongest batsman against the short ball? Ricky Ponting? Did he never get out on a short ball? He got out too. So we have to understand everyone has strengths, everyone has weaknesses. These things are common in international cricket. It's simple — show your strengths, hide your weaknesses, and keep working on them behind the scenes. All these questions… How many times did he play against Jofra Archer at Trent Bridge? These are all experiences. We can't write his obituary immediately. Can't write someone off just like that," Ashwin said.
“He's such a young kid. The problem is, we rate him so highly; he performed so well in the IPL, expectations skyrocketed. We expect him to perform like Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma every match, to be consistent. That's not how it works. There will be ups and downs in life, in cricket too," he added.