Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Told To Wait But Sourav Ganguly Did The Exact Opposite With MS Dhoni

For Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, lessons from how Sourav Ganguly handled MS Dhoni© Getty

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is a once-in-a-generation player. Although the teenage opener is only in the first year of his international career, many view him as a player who could potentially forge an even greater legacy than Virat Kohli or Sachin Tendulkar. While the start of his international career has been blazing, purely from a contribution standpoint, cracking the team's internal competition has proved tough. Captain Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir have already pointed out that the 15-year-old opener has to "wait". As the cricket world assesses the pros and cons of this waiting period, it is worth noting how former India captain Sourav Ganguly handled the arrival of another exceptional talent, MS Dhoni, during his tenure at the helm of the national team.

While both Gambhir and Iyer have openly acknowledged that Sooryavanshi is a rare talent and the future of the team, the youngster was made to warm the bench for all five matches against the West Indies because the management did not want to break up the opening partnership of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson.

For both Gambhir and Iyer, the Samson-Abhishek duo remains the preferred way forward in T20Is, irrespective of Sooryavanshi's immense talent. However, Ganguly believed in managing exceptional talents quite differently.

"Ganguly's mantra was simple: If he believed that a youngster was talented, he would get enough opportunities to prove his worth. This provided a much-needed, calmer atmosphere for the young player, as it was certain he would not be dropped after a single failure," reads the book Winning Like Sourav: Think & Succeed Like Ganguly.

"MS Dhoni is a prime example of this policy. Despite failing in his first four innings, Sourav decided to persist with the youngster, who repaid that faith with a 148-run knock against Pakistan. It was a single innings that likely set Dhoni's career on an entirely different trajectory," it added.

Though the Dhoni and Sooryavanshi scenarios aren't exactly the same, there are lessons to learn in handling exceptional talents. Ganguly could've made Dhoni warm the bench, asked him to prove himself again in domestic cricket, but he knew that such a move could dent his confidence and the talent he has might get suppressed. Ganguly persisted with him despite the risk of unsettling seniors or immediate results, and what Dhoni went on to achieve for Indian international cricket later is known to the entire cricket world.

Sharing his own leadership mantra, Ganguly once revealed how crucial it is for a leader to give a youngster consistent opportunities once they have been brought into the team.

"For any leader, the biggest challenge is to identify the right talent. One has to be very clear about the kind of team he wants. He should analyse candidates carefully before bringing them on board. Once selected, he needs to give them the opportunity to prove their talent," Ganguly stated.

"As a captain, I gave young players the opportunity to showcase their talent in at least their first ten matches. It eases the pressure and allows the potential candidate to play at their own pace," he explained.

With the Indian team now heading to New Zealand for another five-match T20I series, it will be interesting to see whether Gambhir and Iyer reassess their strategy regarding this generational talent, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

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