Why India Ignored Teen Sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi vs Afghanistan

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has not been picked for the first India vs Afghanistan T20I at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. The decision is surprising, as the teenager was the Player of the Series in India's last T20I contest in Zimbabwe. He was the top scorer in the series with 151 runs in three innings. Captain Shreyas Iyer did not give a clear reason for overlooking Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, but with India opting for Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan, the team management is clearly looking to prioritise experience.

India legend Sunil Gavaskar agreed with the decision, saying that Sooryavanshi has age on his side.

Here is what Shreyas Iyer said: "[On managing team combinations and selecting players for the match] That is more difficult, I feel. But I would say if Vaibhav (Sooryavanshi) is not playing, then Washington (Sundar) is not playing, and there are two more which you'll get to know."

While Sooryavanshi is not playing, Jasprit Bumrah is back for India, as is Nitish Kumar Reddy and varun Chakaravarthy, who missed out on a lot of cricketing action in the last few months due to injuries to the knee, quadriceps and hamstring, respectively.

Winning the toss, Iyer opted to bowl and said: "When you have played in Delhi, you do know what the pitch has got to offer and we've played quite a bit of matches over here. So based on that and looking at the conditions, that's really both.

"It's been a rollercoaster ride (as T20I captain), but if you see the previous series which we played against Zimbabwe, there were a lot of positives and the boys were optimistic in their approach. So that's the attitude we got to carry in this series as well.

"It's a luxury to have him (Bumrah) in the squad because he's immensely experienced and he carries a lot of great attitude when it comes to winning matches. So we know he's a match-winner and we know what he's got to offer.

India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy.

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