‘He has to wait’: Gautam Gambhir’s message to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi as teenage sensation watches on

The wait continues for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.India head coach Gautam Gambhir made it clear that the 15-year-old batting sensation will have to be patient for his next opportunity in the senior side, despite the excitement surrounding his emergence and the clamour to see him in action on home soil.Sooryavanshi did not feature in any of India's three T20Is against Afghanistan, with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma retained as the opening combination throughout the series. India completed a 3-0 sweep with a commanding 127-run victory in the final match in New Delhi on Thursday.Gambhir said the decision was based on the performances of players who had already established themselves, rather than Sooryavanshi's age or potential."From Vaibhav’s point of view, it was a very clear conversation that he will have to wait for his opportunity. We know the kind of talent he has and what he can do, but someone who has been performing for the last 2–3 years will always be ahead of someone who has just entered the team," Gambhir said at the post-match press conference.The India coach also stressed that being 15 does not automatically move Sooryavanshi ahead of established players."Whenever he gets his run, he will get a longer run as well. That is what Indian cricket is all about — we want competition and talent in the dressing room, but that’s how cricket goes. Whether you’re a 15-year-old or a 30-year-old, when you have to wait for your opportunity, you have to wait for your opportunity," he added.Samson gets backing despite England callGambhir also revealed how difficult it was to leave Samson out of India's England series, while explaining why the team returned to the combination that delivered the 2026 T20 World Cup."I think his [Samson's] talent itself is enough for him to be in the dressing room. I think he’s shown what he’s capable of. Someone doesn’t become a Player of the Tournament in a World Cup without having that talent. So he’s done enough," Gambhir said."Obviously, it was tough—probably the toughest decision I’ve taken in my coaching tenure was leaving him out in that England series, considering how he performed prior to that," he added.Samson repaid the faith with a half-century in the second T20I before scoring another 50 in the series finale, while Abhishek smashed a record-breaking 108 off 34 balls.World Cup combination remains the priorityGambhir said India deliberately went back to the opening combination that had delivered their World Cup triumph, arguing that a few failures did not make established players ineffective."But again, sometimes you go with player form as well. In this series, we were always very clear from my point of view that we wanted to go back to the combination we had during the World Cup. Because those guys, after three or four failures, do not become bad players," he said."The cricket we’ve played—if a team has gone unbeaten from one World Cup to another and won the World Cup, I’m sure it’s a gun team. Suddenly, it doesn't become a bad team after one or two series, and these guys do not become bad players after two or three failures. That is what these guys have shown here as well," Gambhir added.Sooryavanshi, India's youngest T20I debutant, had scored 42 runs in three matches in England before making a major impact against Zimbabwe, where he finished the series as the leading run-scorer with 151 runs at a strike rate of 196.10 and was named Player of the Series.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.