Former Indian keeper-batter Deep Dasgupta has noted that the Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi combination hasn’t been tried yet as an opening pair. Notably, Sanju returned for the Afghanistan T20I series after being rested for the Zimbabwe tour.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, the former stumper has advised the Indian team management, headed by Gautam Gambhir, to try out every possible combination before the T20 World Cup 2028.
“Straight away, if you think about the last match (England T20Is), it was Sanju and Abhishek. Leave Zimbabwe aside. When all three were available, Sanju and Abhishek were there. I think we haven’t seen the Sanju-Vaibhav combination yet. So far, we’ve seen Abhishek-Vaibhav and Abhishek-Sanju, right? It’s not a bad idea to even try and see what kind of combination Sanju and Vaibhav can make,” Deep Dasgupta said on his YouTube channel.
“Again, I’m not saying, please don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about dropping anyone here. I’m just saying, reiterating again, that the idea is that before the World Cup, you want to give every combination and every individual a proper chance and proper game time to understand what works,” he added.
Further, Dasgupta iterated that over the next six to eight months, a total of 20 to 25 players are likely to be rotated in the Indian T20I squad, adding that nobody from this lot should be considered either dropped or returned.
“And that’s why I’m saying that when it comes to T20 cricket, I was reading some articles where I saw people saying, ‘You know, this guy is back and this guy is back again.’ But in T20 cricket, over the next six to eight months, nobody is back and nobody is sacked. According to me, there are 20-25 players who will play in rotation. Some will be back, while some will be left out. But the idea is that two to three months before a tournament, like the World Cup, you get a proper team. Right?” he noted.
“All I’m saying is that you decide. If I were with that team at this point, I would think about how many matches I have over the next year. And, broadly speaking, I would try to give everyone the same number of games as much as possible. Every combination should get the same number of games,” he concluded.
India’s squad for Afghanistan T20I series: Shreyas Iyer [C], Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson [WK], Ishan Kishan [WK], Tilak Varma [VC], Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*
*Subect to fitness clearance from BCCI CoE.
