Former Indian wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik criticized the team management, particularly head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar, for how they handled Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Suryavanshi during the recently concluded T20I series against England. The Men in Blue are coming off back-to-back T20I series losses to Ireland and England by 0-2 and 0-4 margins, respectively.

Samson, who was the Player of the Tournament of the 2026 T20 World Cup, was dropped after three failures, with Suryavanshi replacing him in the second England T20I. Yet, after failing in his first three games for India, Suryavanshi was dropped from the playing XI for the fifth and final T20I, with Samson replacing him.

Talking about how both players were handled, Karthik said on Sky Sports (33:56):

While Samson scored 28 runs in the two T20Is he played against England, Suryavanshi scored 42 in his three appearances.

Former England captain Nasser Hussain believes the Indian management has dented the confidence of Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Suryavanshi in the India-England T20I series. Hussain also claims the think tank was forced to play 15-year-old Suryavanshi because of external pressure.

Suryavanshi captured the imagination of the cricketing world with his extraordinary showing in IPL 2026, where he scored 776 runs at a strike rate of over 237. As a result, he was fast-tracked into the Indian T20I squad for the Ireland and England series.

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