Former Indian cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth has blasted the Indian management for the way young talent Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was handled during India's recent T20I series against Ireland and England. The young batting prodigy Sooryavanshi, who earned his maiden India call-up following breathtaking IPL 2026, was overlooked in the playing XI for the Ireland T20Is, with the selectors preferring the combination of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Sharma at the top. However, he was brought into the side for the England series after Sanju Samson experienced a dip in his form. But he once again found himself on the bench, being dropped for the fifth and final match against England.

“I was so upset with the interview after the toss. This is not the way to talk. How you treat your players and how you form a young team are important. If this is the way forward, the way forward is to change everybody. He said we want to take the best way forward. If you are willing to drop players based on their performance, the same yardstick should apply to Gautam Gambhir; the same yardstick should apply to the captain as well. You are saying the players are not performing. What has been your performance?” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.

“What wrong did Vaibhav Sooryavanshi do? Is this how you groom young players?” he said.

When Shreyas Iyer was asked about the decision to drop Sooryavanshi, he had said that the decision was taken keeping in mind what was best for the team. "I feel this is the time we need to try what's best going forward for us as a team. So based on that, we decided this," Shreyas had said.

Srikkanth further slammed Iyer for the explanation he gave. Meanwhile, Sooryavanshi scored only 42 runs across three matches, managing 14, 13 and 15, respectively, in the second, third and fourth matches.

“Shreyas Iyer said at the toss, 'We want to get back to the best way possible'. Is this your best way forward? What is this interview? If you thought Sanju Samson was the best fit, then you should have continued with him. Why bring in Vaibhav and then drop him? Why spoil his future? You are all ruining his confidence. When Sachin Tendulkar made his debut at 16, i went up and told him 'you won't be dropped in this tour. You play fearlessly,” Srikkanth said.

“Should Gambhir and Shreyas not give Sooryavanshi that kind of confidence? It's not fair. I am very upset with the way they are treating Vaibhav Sooryavanshi,” he stated.