The wait for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's historic India debut continues, as the 15-year-old was left out of the playing XI for the series-deciding second T20I against Ireland in Belfast on Sunday (June 28).
The reigning T20 World Cup champions suffered a shock 34-run defeat in the series opener against Ireland. After the loss, many fans and experts expected to see the left-handed teenage prodigy in the playing XI for the second and final T20I.
Instead, the Indian team management handed T20I debut caps to pacer Prince Yadav and batting all-rounder Suryansh Shedge in a must-win fixture, keeping Sooryavanshi on the bench.
After the game, which India lost by 1 run to suffer a 0-2 clean sweep, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate admitted that while Sooryavanshi is ready for international cricket, he must patiently wait his turn as the team management wants to give established World Cup stars a consistent run.
“He’s absolutely ready to play international cricket, there’s no doubt about that,” ten Doeschate said when asked how far Sooryavanshi was from making his international debut. “But also, I think it’s not a question to say you can leave Sanju Samson out. A guy who went a long way to winning India the World Cup three months ago. A guy who’s had a fairly good IPL,” ten Doeschate told reporters.
“It’s important in terms of giving players confidence, and the message we’re sending to players. We want to give guys a long run in the team. So, you know, as ready as Vaibhav is and as excited as we are and you are to see him play, he’s going to have to go through the same process as everyone else and, you know, bide his time and wait. But certainly no questions about how good he is and how ready he is,” he added.
Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson opened the batting for India in the Ireland series. While Sharma holds the No. 1 position in the ICC Men’s T20I Rankings for batters, Samson earned the Player-of-the-Tournament award in India’s T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year.
Both of the them failed to leave a big mark against Ireland. While the southpaw returned with scores of 49 and 0, Samson managed 5 runs across the two innings, including a duck in the second T20I.
Coming to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, he is on the verge of shattering Sachin Tendulkar’s 36-year-old record to become the youngest debutant in men’s cricket for India. Tendulkar was 16 years and 205 days when he made his international debut against Pakistan in 1989.
Sooryavanshi earned his maiden India call-up on the back of a record-breaking IPL 2026 campaign where he finished as the Most Valuable Player and Orange Cap winner for the Rajasthan Royals (RR), hammering 776 runs at a staggering strike rate of 237.30. Along the way, he dominated high-profile bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood.
If the wonder kid from Bihar features in the upcoming five-T20I series against England, he would become the youngest debutant ever for India across both men's and women's cricket. The record is currently held by Shafali Verma, whose maiden appearance for India came at the age of 15 years and 239 days.
