Vaibhav Sooryavanshi may be on the verge of becoming India’s youngest international cricketer, but batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has made it clear that the teenager’s chances should not come at the expense of players who are already excelling.India will begin their two-match T20I series against Ireland on Friday and if Sooryavanshi is named in the starting XI, the 15-year-old will become the youngest player to feature for India. The team management, led by captain Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir, faces selection ahead of the opener. One option could be to bring in Sooryavanshi in place of Abhishek Sharma and leave him open with Sanju Samson or vice versa.Kotak, speaking on the eve of the game, praised the teenager’s ability but said team selection must also be fair to players who have already scored.“There is no doubt that Vaibhav is very talented. From the way he has batted in the IPL and all other games, there is no need to say that he has a lot of talent. Because in the IPL, he has faced Jofra, a lot of fast bowlers, a lot of experienced bowlers. And nothing seems to bother him. So he is obviously an extraordinary person,” news agency PTI quoted Kotak as saying.“Tonight, the captain and the head coach will decide the squad. If he performs well, if he doesn’t play for me, that’s great because he is part of the Indian team. I am sure he will get his due and opportunity. So I don’t think just to give him a chance, we should drop someone who has already scored runs.“It’s not right either. I think there’s a fine line between trying to give someone a chance and being unfair to other players,” Kotak said.Kotak said the depth of talent in Indian cricket has made selection increasingly difficult and admitted that even the selectors have a tough job.“If you ask me, India has so much talent that even the selectors have a headache. To be honest, I don’t have that much of a headache because I’m not the head coach and captain.” But sometimes it’s tough. ““But we also have to remember one thing, the guys who are already performing, they should never be overlooked, as I believe. The guys who are already scoring, winning games for the team. BCCIAsked how difficult it would be to exclude players from the World Cup-winning squad, Kotak said: “Our structure is such that players keep coming in.”
