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Oct 8,2026 07:42 PM IST

Change In Opening Combo For India, Gautam Gambhir Asked To Give Vaibhav Sooryavanshi New Partner

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Sports Home Cricket News Change In Opening Combo For India Gautam Gambhir Asked To Give Vaibhav Sooryavanshi New Partner

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Change In Opening Combo For India, Gautam Gambhir Asked To Give Vaibhav Sooryavanshi New Partner

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi could get a new opening partner for the T20I series against Afghanistan, having opened with Abhishek Sharma in the past.

NDTV Sports Desk
Updated: September 04, 2026 02:18 pm IST

Read Time: 2 min

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Vaibhav Sooryavanshi may get a new opening partner against Afghanistan© BCCI/Creimas

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Summary is AI-generated, newsroom-reviewed

Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi are India's top T20I openers against Afghanistan
Deep Dasgupta recommends trying the Samson-Sooryavanshi opening pair in the Afghanistan series
Samson missed the Zimbabwe series but played alongside Abhishek Sharma against England

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The Indian cricket team has three top-quality openers - Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi - available for the upcoming T20I series against Afghanistan. Samson wasn't a part of the Zimbabwe series, where Sooryavanshi emerged as the Player of the tournament, while against England, Abhishek paired with Samson and the 15-year-old in different matches.

As the Afghanistan series begins, former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta has urged the Gautam Gambhir-led team management to give an opportunity to the pairing of Sooryavanshi and Samson at the top of the batting order.

While Abhishek remained a constant presence for India in one of the two opening spots, the second position was rotated between Samson and Sooryavanshi against England. In the Afghanistan series, Dasgupta wants the fresh pair of Samson and Sooryavanshi to be tried.

"Straight away, if you think about the last match (England T20Is), it was Sanju and Abhishek. Leave Zimbabwe aside. When all three were available, Sanju and Abhishek were there. I think we haven't seen the Sanju-Vaibhav combination yet. So far, we've seen Abhishek-Vaibhav and Abhishek-Sanju, right? It's not a bad idea to even try and see what kind of combination Sanju and Vaibhav can make," Dasgupta said on his YouTube channel.

To clarify his suggestion, Dasgupta said that he is not asking the management to drop Abhishek, but rather, just try another combination as the team looks to solidify its plans in the shortest format going forward.

"Again, I'm not saying, please don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about dropping anyone here. I'm just saying, reiterating again, that the idea is that before the World Cup, you want to give every combination and every individual a proper chance and proper game time to understand what works," he added.

Against Zimbabwe, Sooryavanshi emerged as the top run-scorer with 151 runs in three innings at an average of 50.33 and striking at 196.10.