Indian cricket has always been a pressure cooker, but the current temperature is absurd. We are a matter of months removed from a glorious T20 World Cup triumph. Yet, after a few quiet nights on the current tour of England, the knives are out. The opening fixture at Chester-le-Street exposed a familiar, ugly truth about the national fanbase: context means absolutely nothing when a shiny new toy is sitting on the bench.
Right now, that toy is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
He is fifteen. Read that again. At an age when most kids are stressing over school exams, this left-handed prodigy has just plundered 776 runs in a single Indian Premier League season. He did it at a strike rate that genuinely defied belief. Naturally, the internet wanted him in the side. The clamour has reached its peak because the man currently holding the shirt, Sanju Samson, has hit a low form. Three consecutive low scores across recent tours have left the incumbent opener looking vulnerable. The public reaction has been swift, brutal, and entirely reactionary.
Why Dinesh Karthik is right to demand patience with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
Enter Dinesh Karthik. The former India wicketkeeper-batter has stepped squarely into the crossfire, offering a desperately needed dose of sanity via Cricbuzz. Karthik is not blind to the reality of the situation. He openly acknowledged that Samson is going through a genuine lean patch. Three failures on the bounce hurt. There is no hiding from that in international cricket. But sport cannot just be about what you did five minutes ago.
Karthik's argument is rooted in the dressing room reality. Performing under the suffocating weight of a World Cup final clears a player's ledger for a while. It buys you time. That sort of credit in the bank shouldn't be wiped out by three bad games on English soil. Surviving the ultimate pressure cooker earns you the right to work through a temporary dip in form without fearing the axe.
No one is denying Sooryavanshi's freakish talent. Karthik himself made it clear that the teenager is a nailed-on certainty for a massive international career. The kid is special. But international cricket can destroy young players just as quickly as it crowns them. Throwing an unproven 15-year-old into the firing line at the expense of a proven match-winner is a massive gamble. The youngster needs to earn his stripes, score his domestic runs, and wait for a genuine vacancy rather than benefiting from a manufactured panic. India need to hold their nerve and back their experienced core.
"Sanju Samson has, once again, had a bit of a failure. Now three innings on the bounce means the calls are coming nice and loud for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, but I would still say, Sanju Samson, player of the tournament in the World Cup, he is under pressure," Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
"I know the whole cricketing world is going to be like, 'Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, when is he going to get in?' That is understandable," he said.
"But I still hope they back someone like Sanju Samson, because, under pressure, in the World Cup, a few months ago, he got the job done, so we have to back him. Vaibhav needs to earn the right to play in this XI even though he is extremely talented, and I have no doubt he is going to do very well in international cricket,” he concluded.
