New Delhi, June 6 (IANS) India’s chief selector Ajit Agarkar said he had high hopes for teenage batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after giving him a maiden T20I call-up to tours of Ireland, England, and the Asian Games, adding the youngster had ‘picked himself’ into the squad with his explosive IPL 2026 performances.
Sooryavanshi had a stellar IPL 2026 for the Rajasthan Royals and was the leading run-getter in the competition with 776 runs, including a hundred and five half-centuries. He also bagged the most valuable player and emerging player of the competition awards in the competition.
“What do you say, we’ve seen what he can do. You saw, even towards those playoffs, almost single‑handedly carried the Rajasthan Royals. For a young kid, I don’t need to talk about how well he’s batting or how well he’s playing. It’s not just this season. He’s obviously made a great start last season.
“To back it up for a young kid in a competition that’s as competitive and has a high‑pressure environment, and how explosive he can be, and a game‑changer that he can be. So we’ve, like everyone else that’s watched cricket, or at least watched T20 cricket in India, we’ve got high hopes of him, and I think he just has picked himself really,” said Agarkar in the press conference at the BCCI HQ on Saturday.
Sooryavanshi’s selection comes after he landed in Sri Lanka as a member of the India ‘A’ team for the 50-over tri‑series starting on June 9 in Dambulla. Secretary Devajit Saikia said the priority would be to send Sooryavanshi to Ireland and England, while adding that selectors and technical staff are monitoring his every step to ensure his future is handled with care.
“But we can all see what kind of talent he has, and we’re hopeful that if and when he gets an opportunity to actually play for the country, he shows the same sort of ability that he’s shown. Obviously, there will be tougher challenges when you play for your country, but he’s shown great promise and temperament.
“So we’re all very hopeful, like everyone is. I think he’s picked himself through his performances. You always deliberate, because, like the question before, there’s so much talent around, especially when it comes to T20 cricket at this point, but it tells you a lot that his performances have made us pick him, and we’re very hopeful.
“With regards to red ball, I mean, he’s a kid, and let him just be as he’s just starting his journey. I’m sure when the season starts, the domestic season starts, and he plays for his team, plays a little bit of red ball cricket, we’ll wait and observe at this point, why jump the gun?
“I think we’re very excited with what he’s doing in T20 cricket. Hopefully, we as selectors or the BCCI and the coaching staff can help him push in the right direction. So at this point, we’re just focused on, you know, what he can bring to the T20 team, and we’ll take one step at a time,” elaborated Agarkar.
On Rajat Patidar missing out on selection despite being in stellar form to help Royal Challengers Bengaluru defend their IPL title, Agarkar said, “You discuss a host of players when you sit there. I don’t think you just sit and put 15 names down. So that’s always the case. We think all these 15 players are deserving.
“I think there are a lot of good players in India. We’ve seen over the last couple of months in the IPL, or if you follow domestic cricket through the season, there are plenty of guys who are – you’d think they’re good enough to walk into the team.
“But the guys who are playing are doing as well as – we just won a World Cup a couple of months back. So no, I think we picked a really good one. 16 for the Ireland and England series and 15 for the Asian Games. There’ll always be players missing out, but like I said, you can only pick 15, and we’re very happy with this one.”
On Jasprit Bumrah’s inclusion for the Asian Games, he said, “We know how important he is. Plus the WTC cycle, we’ve still got a chance to enter the final. If he plays well enough over these next nine Tests, this one is not part of WTC, the Afghanistan one.
“But if you can have Jasprit play the majority of those games and still keep him fit and healthy, it’s always the thing. I mean, there’s a lot of T20 cricket. You can always bring him back. Asian Games – he will be there. So, the main aim is to try and keep him fit for the Tests and the one-dayers.”
“I don’t know whether worry is the right word, but we obviously need to improve our (Test) performances. I think England was good and the South African series probably didn’t go to plan, but we still have a chance if we play well enough. We know we’ve got the players, but we’ve got to play better.”
On Hardik Pandya not named in T20I squads, Agarkar said, “With regards to Hardik, firstly, he’s part of the one‑day squad right now against Afghanistan. Obviously, if we can get him playing well and keep him fit for one‑day cricket, I don’t think he’s played one‑day cricket for a while.
“That is, at this point, the main objective. We can always bring him back. It also gives us an opportunity to give someone like Nitish Reddy a few opportunities with T20 cricket. So there will be a little bit of rest and rotation with regard to T20.
“But the main objective is to see if he can start playing well and stay healthy with 50‑over cricket with the World Cup in, what, a year and a half. He gives us a lot of balance. The World Cup is in South Africa. If he’s bowling well enough, I mean, we’ll assess how we go in the next few months. That’s primarily the reason at this point.”
On Prince Yadav being included in T20I teams for the Ireland and England series, Agarkar said, “It’s domestic performance, really. We saw him in the Vijay Hazare Trophy enough this year, and he looked impressive. I don’t think he played a lot of red ball cricket last year, but the white ball stuff was really good.
“Then to back it up in the IPL against really good quality batters – when you play a lot of games in the IPL, it’s always going to be up and down, particularly when most teams get 200 for fun these days. So, he can bowl under pressure, which is the first thing that you try and see if a guy can do that day in, day out, and has the skill set, obviously – can move the ball, bowls towards the end of the innings.
“So you try and find a balance that the four or five guys that you picked, if they can do different roles. He kind of fits everything in white-ball cricket. He’s bowled well for Delhi this year, which was the first time that we sort of saw him bowl.
“Not first time, we’ve seen him before, but he bowled well this season, and that caught our eye, and so he was always there in our planning. This Afghanistan series coming up gives us an opportunity to see what he can do in 50‑over cricket, but in T20, we’ve all seen that. He’s got the skill set. So, again, like the guys that we picked, they’re always hopeful.”
–IANS
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