New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner has praised Indian’s extraordinarily talented batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi ahead of the five-match T20I against India, lauding the fearless approach the young prodigy brings to the table. In India’s recent T20I series against West Indies, Vaibhav warmed the benches, failing to secure a call in the playing XI, with the management sticking with the regular combination of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. Still, Mitchell Santner highlighted the threat young Sooryavanshi poses while also pointing out his major role in the Indian team.

"We have looked at India's squad and the last series; obviously he didn't play, but we have seen firsthand how good he is," Santner said at the press conference.

"The power at the top that India have, Sanju and Abhishek have done really well, so I think it's one of those things where we know how good he is, and then the guys who are playing are also doing very well.

Santner further stressed that his team has got plans to counter Sooryavanshi if he happens to play in the series that begins on October 22. 

"I think he has a huge part to play for India, whether it's this series or not, but in the future. If he does get a crack this series, we've seen what he can do, and guys have found it quite hard to stop him. I know England, in the series away, went quite short and hard at a lot of the Indian batters, but I think we've seen in the IPL how aggressive he can be, so we've got some plans for him if he happens to play," Santner stated.

India squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav

New Zealand squad: Mitchell Santner (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Josh Clarkson, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Bevon Jacobs, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner