Fans would have to wait a little longer to see the youngster and India’s newest batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi officially receiving his T20I cap. The star batter who has already scripted history by becoming the youngest player to ever receive a national call for the Indian team is not making debut in the first T20I against Ireland.

For the unversed, the Men in Blue are touring Ireland for a two-game T20I series starting on June 26 in Belfast. Before the game, there were speculations about whether or not Sooryavanshi will make his debut in the first game on Friday.

Guess, June 26 wasn’t the day, and Indian fans would have to wait till the next game to see if Shreyas Iyer and coach Gautam Gambhir decide to hand the 15-year-old lad his T20I cap. On the other hand, Iyer, who is making his captaincy debut and returning to the shortest format after two-and-a-half years, won the toss and decided to field first against Ireland’s Lorcan Tucker.

Speaking about Sooryavanshi’s debut during the toss, Iyer said that the team decided to go with players who already have experience and have been doing well in the fastest format. “He’s a gun player. But obviously, we’ve got tremendous experience in the squad who have done brilliant in the past couple of series for India,” Iyer said.

“So we are backing majority of our cricketers who have been doing absolutely marvellous throughout the season. So I think he’outside the leg-stump get his opportunity when the time comes. But for now, we are going with three genuine seamers, one all-rounder, and two spinners.”

Though, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had already hinted that Sooryavanshi’s debut could be delayed.

 

Keep it as simple as possible: Shreyas Iyer on his captaincy philosophy

Iyer, who has played 51 T20Is for the three-time World Cup winners, replaced Suryakumar Yadav as the team’s new skipper earlier this month. Speaking about his philosophy, he said, “I always keep saying that you don’t have to complicate things. Keep it as simple as possible. When I say that, you just need to be in the present and not think much about or dwell into past or future. If you’re there in the moment and you’re enjoying the game, that’s all is required from each one.”

Coming back to the game, here’s how the playing XIs for sides look like-

Ireland (Playing XI): Tim Tector, Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker(w/c), Benjamin Calitz, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Liam McCarthy, Matthew Humphreys, Jai Moondra, Matthew Hollard

India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson(w), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna