Sooryavanshi, Abhishek's six-hitting ability great, but needs to be controlled: BCCI source

By Vipul Kashyap

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 9 (ANI): The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is closely observing India's performances in the ongoing T20I series against England, with the opening pair of Abhishek Sharma and 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and their six-hitting ability under the scanner, as per a source from the board.

India, which entered a new era during the tour to the UK, with middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer taking over the captaincy from the T20 World Cup-winning skipper Suryakumar Yadav. However, currently 2-0 down in the five-match series after a shock 2-0 loss to Ireland in T20Is preceeding the England tour, Team India is still searching for their first win under Iyer, let alone a series win. The best India can do during the ongoing T20I series is to level it 2-2, with the first match ending in a washout.

A BCCI source has acknowledged that the "six-hitting ability of Abhishek and Sooryavanshi is great but needs to be controlled".

Sooryavanshi, who became India's youngest international cricketer ever at the age of 15 years and 99 days in the second T20I, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar's long-standing record made back in 1989, has had a forgettable start to his career, managing scores of 14, 13 and 15.

Notably, Sooryavanshi earned his maiden national call-up following a sensational IPL 2026 campaign with Rajasthan Royals, where he amassed 776 runs at a staggering strike rate of 237.30, including a century and five fifties. His explosive season saw him finish as the tournament's leading run-scorer while smashing a record 72 sixes.

The youngster also swept multiple post-season IPL honours, including the Orange Cap, Most Valuable Player, Emerging Player, Super Striker and Super Sixes awards.

So far in his IPL career, Sooryavanshi has scored 1,028 runs in 23 matches and innings at an average of 44.69 and a strike rate of 228.95, with two centuries and six fifties and a best score of 103. He has smashed 96 sixes.

In the recent tri-nation series in Sri Lanka, featuring SL A and Afghanistan A, Sooryavanshi made 211 runs in five innings at an average of 42.20, with a strike rate of almost 201, with the best score of 94, his solitary fifty coming in the final. He also smacked the fastest List A cricket fifty in 11 balls against Sri Lanka A.

On the other hand, Abhishek has fared way better, but has had his share of failures. In the Ireland series, he managed scores of 49 and 0 in two matches. So far in the England tour, he has managed scores of 59, 43, 10 and 16 and has been one of India's better batters this tour. But the match-winning impact in his batting has not been seen so far.

Coming to the fourth T20I, India won the toss and elected to bat first.

Teams:

England (Playing XI): Philip Salt, Jos Buttler(w), Harry Brook(c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Josh Tongue

India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna. (ANI)

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