Young prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s highly-anticipated International debut was delayed once again as he was made to warm the bench in the first T20I of the five-match series against England at the Riverside Ground in Chester-Le-Street on Wednesday. The 15-year-old did not get a single opportunity in the two-match Ireland tour, where the Men in Blue lost both the matches. Instead, players like Prince Yadav and Suryansh Shedge got opportunities before him during the series against the Irish.
India To Bat First Against England
Shreyas Iyer, who is leading India in his second series as the new T2OI captain, won the toss and elected to bat first. He appeared confident and said that the Ireland series is history and they are eager to put on an astonishing performance in this series.
Fans were eager to see Shreyas Iyer announce Sooryavanshi’s debut, but their wait only continued as there was no mention of Sooryavanshi in Iyer’s comments during the toss.
Shreyas Iyer At Toss
“We are going with bat first. Ireland is history. It’s a new series, five games, everything to play for. Certainly, this is a great opportunity for us. This is my first, second actually, second series as a captain. So, pretty much excited. We got what we wanted. We got a session of practice over here yesterday, pretty much acclimatised to the surrounding as well. So, looking forward for an exciting one. [On the mood in the dressing room after the Ireland series] It’s absolutely fine,” said Shreyas Iyer at toss.
“To be honest, as you mentioned, Ireland series is history. We’ve got to learn a lot from that series. And coming over here, we know how England has been playing their cricket. So, definitely slightly upbeat, know their strengths and weaknesses, so looking forward to have a great one.”
“[On his assessment of the pitch] There’s pretty decent amount of grass on the wicket. We practiced yesterday as well on the same one. So, can’t actually predict how the wicket’s going to play, but definitely the intent is going to be high. [On India’s team combination for the opening match] We are going with three spinners, with Axar being an all-rounder, and two seamers,” he added.
India Playing XI: Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy
England Playing XI: Philip Salt, Jos Buttler(w), Harry Brook(c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood