NEW DELHI: Former India captain Kris Srikkanth has strongly criticised the Indian team management over the way 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was handled during the T20I tours of Ireland and England.Sooryavanshi did not get a game in the Ireland series and was later drafted into the playing XI against England after Sanju Samson struggled for runs. However, after playing three matches, the teenager was dropped again for the fifth and final T20I. India lost the five-match series 0-4. Srikkanth said he was particularly unhappy with captain Shreyas Iyer‘s explanation for the change at the toss before the final T20I.At the toss, Iyer had defended the decision by saying: “I feel this is the time we need to try what’s the best going forward for us as a team. So based on that, we decided this.”The remark did not go down well with Srikkanth.“I was so upset with the interview after the toss,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.He questioned the team’s approach towards young players and said the same standards should apply to everyone in the setup.“This is not the way to talk. How you are treating your players, how you are forming a young team is important. If this is the way forward, the way forward is to change everybody (the leadership group). He said we want to take the best way forward. If you are willing to drop players based on their performance, the same yardstick should apply to Gautam Gambhir, the same yardstick should apply to the captain also. You are saying the players are not performing, what has been your performance?”Sooryavanshi was brought into the side after Sanju Samson, the Player of the Tournament at this year’s T20 World Cup, failed to score in three successive innings. The teenager managed scores of 14 in Manchester, 13 in Nottingham and 15 in Bristol, before being left out of the final match.Srikkanth questioned what the youngster had done wrong.“What wrong did Vaibhav Sooryavanshi do? Is this how you groom young players?”The former India opener compared the situation with his own experience as captain when he handed a 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar his international debut during the 1989 tour of Pakistan.He said backing a young player was crucial for building confidence.“Shreyas Iyer said at the toss ‘we want to get back to the best way possible’. Is this your best way forward? What is this interview? If you thought Sanju Samson was the best fit, then you should have continued with him. Why bring in Vaibhav and then drop him? Why spoil his future? You are all ruining his confidence. When Sachin Tendulkar made his debut at 16, I went up and told him ‘you won’t be dropped in this tour. You play fearlessly’.“Srikkanth said the current leadership should have shown the same faith in Sooryavanshi instead of dropping him after just three matches.“Should Gambhir and Shreyas not give Sooryavanshi that kind of confidence? It’s not fair. I am very upset with the way they are treating Vaibhav Sooryavanshi,” he said.
