One last chance for Vaibhav Suryavanshi To restore his good name? Not real. The performance of a Sri Lanka batsman is important. It is not like India and Pakistan, where pitches largely support batsmen in white-ball cricket, where the boundaries are smaller. Sri Lanka has a completely different reputation. Fast bowlers get help from the pitch, spinners get buys as well, and the boundaries are quite big in certain parts of the ground.
That’s why it was always going to be a big tour for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi with India A. He had a brilliant run in the Indian Premier League, scoring 776 runs and scoring a record 72 runs in 16 matches. Four and a half sixes per round on average!
But he has so far failed to make any real impression in Sri Lanka. In his four 50-game triples series so far, he has points of 14, 44, 21 and 38. Of these matches, 44 and 38 came against lower-class Afghanistan sides, especially in terms of bowling. So, against hosts Sri Lanka A and a much better bowling side, he made just 14 and 21 with the bat.
But it’s not that he didn’t try. He tried to stay in the crease. He tried not to play hard shots. But then he is only 15 and has only a handful of cricket matches under his belt. His shot selection at his level still has a long way to go. In IPL on flat wickets, he can swing his bat at will. At this level he cannot. He will have to be much more patient than he has been so far. Twice out of his four dismissals, he fell victim to short-pitched deliveries. Now this is something to worry about. Throughout the 2026 IPL season, there were rumors that he looked a bit vulnerable against short-pitched deliveries. He also came out on a few occasions trying to pull.
No need to press the panic button
On Sunday, India A are likely to play Sri Lanka A in the final clash, and this is the Bihar batsman’s last chance – mind you, in this series – to reassure his fans that his past failures were just part and parcel of the game. That there is nothing wrong with his style or temperament, and that he is destined to serve India for at least two decades. But if he fails again, it doesn’t mean anything bad. It just means that he will have to return to domestic cricket, perhaps change his team, to be part of the ‘Elite Group’ side where there is competition for places and better opposition to look up to, and play a lot of cricket across the red and white balls. And it only gets better. It’s that simple. BCCI needs to plan everything for it with the help of its chief selector Ajit Agarkar And head coach Gautam Gambhir.
There is no doubt that he is an amazing talent. But it may take a little longer for it to become clearer and fully suitable for the international level. He is part of the T20I squad scheduled to play Ireland and England soon. But no need to press the panic button just yet. Let’s wait for Sunday’s game before we can come to a strong result. Maybe we should wait for the upcoming T20Is in Ireland and England as well. This is what the heart wants to do, but the brain says it will have a big reckoning on Sunday.
