India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak is concerned about the hype surrounding wonder kid Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. The 15-year-old is likely to play Saturday following an injury to Ishan Kishan.
“He is really young, but the way everyone in the team management takes care of him — I keep an eye neutrally — and everyone likes him, social media likes him, team also likes him. But you can’t make changes to the XI because people like him,” Kotak said on Friday.
“He is very talented and I believe he has a bright, bright future ahead. So once he gets his opportunities and settles down, he will learn a lot of things.”
“I felt that at the start, there was a lot of hype that ‘he has to play’. I genuinely felt that wasn’t good for the player also. Just a 15-16-year-old boy, and everyone saying ‘he should play’ and ‘he isn’t being picked’ and so on. He is too young. It’s something I can’t control but it’s sad. And it’s sad for the other openers also, who are performing but people are saying ‘why is he playing’.
“Now he is much more mature. He understood that Sanju is playing well, or Abhishek is playing well - how can they be left out,” Kotak said.