New Delhi: The Indian cricket team’s decision to bench 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi during the ongoing T20 International series against the West Indies has sparked severe criticism from the youngster’s childhood coach, Manish Ojha. Frustrated with seeing his ward restricted to carrying drinks for the first three matches of the series, Ojha launched a scathing attack on the Team India management, even accusing them of behaving like “dictators.”
The non-selection of the young batter has left his mentor deeply emotional and critical of the current strategy employed by the team’s think tank, which is currently spearheaded by head coach Gautam Gambhir.
In a recent conversation with Sports Now, Manish Ojha passionately defended Sooryavanshi’s potential. “Vaibhav is like a storm. Anyone who tries to confront him will eventually be broken, if not today, then tomorrow,” Ojha stated.
Targeting the management’s approach to grooming young talent, the coach expressed his strong disapproval. “The current management of the Indian team thinks that players are prepared by making them sit on the bench. Talk to any cricket legend, and everyone will say that if we want to prepare the next generation, we have to mold them in those actual conditions and give them a chance to play,” he argued.
Ojha further intensified his criticism, claiming that the current regime is stifling the teenager’s growth. “No player has ever been, or will ever be, prepared just by sitting on the bench. Vaibhav is sitting outside serving water. I feel the current management of Team India is running a kind of dictatorship. They do whatever comes to their mind,” he alleged.
Sooryavanshi’s credentials in T20 Internationals have been impressive despite his young age. In the eight T20I matches he has played so far, the teenager has amassed 246 runs at a solid average of 30.75 and an explosive strike rate of over 186. His brief but impactful career already features two half-centuries, 18 sixes, and 22 fours in international cricket.
With two matches still remaining in the T20I series against the West Indies, it remains to be seen whether the Indian team management will heed the criticism and offer the young sensation an opportunity in the playing XI.