Iyer, Gambhir Advised Not To Include Sooryavanshi In Place Of Samson Ahead Of 2nd T20I vs England

Former India cricketer Saba Karim has dismissed suggestions that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is being lined up as Sanju Samson’s replacement in India’s T20I team. He believes Samson has done more than enough to keep his place and pointed to the wicketkeeper-batter’s impressive performances in the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Sooryavanshi, who is only 15, has travelled with the Indian squad for the first two T20Is against Ireland and the opening match of the England series, which was affected by rain. However, the youngster is still waiting for his international debut. The team management has continued to back the World Cup-winning top-order trio of Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan, showing they are treating these bilateral matches with the same seriousness as a major tournament.

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Among the three batters, Samson has struggled for runs in the last three games and has failed to reach double figures. Even so, those low scores have come after he played a key role in India's T20 World Cup triumph, scoring match-winning half-centuries in the team's three biggest matches.

“I don’t think so at this stage,” Karim said on Star Sports about the possible switch. “Sanju Samson is a fabulous player. He has been a match-winner. He had a very good IPL season. Before that, he was the Player of the Tournament in the T20 World Cup. What are we looking at? Sanju Samson would be thinking, ‘Why is everyone pointing the gun at me?’"

Karim also backed the team management’s decision to ease Sooryavanshi into international cricket instead of rushing him into the playing XI. He said spending time with the senior squad would help the youngster develop both as a cricketer and as a person.

“Even for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, this is a good learning curve. He also gets to understand that to get into this Indian team XI, you have to earn your call-up. This environment will help him to grow as a player and as a human being. Although he has got such an incredible amount of talent, when you get into such a competitive environment, you need to bide your time," he added.

India and England will face each other in the second T20I on Saturday.