IND vs NZ: Why is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi not playing India vs New Zealand first T20I

The India vs New Zealand 5-match T20I series opener is being played at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. Indian captain Shreyas Iyer has won the toss & elected to bowl first. 

Nitish Kumar Reddy and Mayank Yadav are returning to the India playing XI instead of Shivam Dube and Prince Yadav. The team enters with 3 seamers & 2 spin bowling all-rounders, and one pace bowling all-rounder. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Mayank Yadav are the 3 pacers. Axar Patel and Naman Dhir are twin spin bowling options. 

On the other hand, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, and Tilak Varma will be the key batters in the playing XI. However, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will miss out once again, as management is sticking with their preferred senior opening duo.

During the pre-match press conference, captain Shreyas Iyer has already revealed that the management will continue with the senior opening duo of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will have to wait for his turn. 

“It's important that a talent like him (Sooryavanshi) should always be happy around the dressing room. He is very young, he has more years to get opportunities. It’s not like he can walk in right now, because our openers are scoring constantly, and they have won the World Cup.” 

Shreyas Iyer spoke about the team combination after winning the toss. He said;

“We are a bunch of professionals and everybody knows that in the dressing room. Well, a lot of positives, honestly, especially in our batting. I think scoring 230, 250 in almost every alternate game, it was a plus for us. And also bowling-wise, it wasn't easy to bowl on smaller ground and flat wickets, but boys showed a lot of character and that is the same attitude and approach we want to come here with. We've got two changes. So, Nitish Kumar Reddy comes in for Shivam Dube and Mayank Yadav comes in for Prince Yadav.” 

India playing XI against New Zealand in the first T20I

Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer ©, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Mayank Yadav