Sooryavanshi ready to play, but must 'bide his time and wait,' says ten Doeschate
The swashbuckling Sooryavanshi was fast-tracked into the India T20I side after amassing 776 runs at a staggering strike-rate of 237.30 to bag the Player-of-the-Tournament honour in IPL 2026. But Sooryavanshi was unused in Ireland, as India suffered a shock 2-0 series loss.
"He's absolutely ready to play international cricket, there's no doubt about that. But also, I think it's not a question to say you can leave Sanju Samson out. A guy who went a long way to winning India the World Cup three months ago. A guy who's had a fairly good IPL.
"It's important in terms of giving players confidence, and the message we're sending to players. We want to give guys a long run in the team. So, as ready as Vaibhav is and as excited as we are and you are to see him play, he's going to have to go through the same process as everyone else and, you know, bide his time and wait. But certainly no questions about how good he is and how ready he is," said ten Doeschate at the conclusion of the series.
Sooryavanshi will now travel to England for the five-game T20I series starting in Durham on July 1. If either of Sanju Samson or Abhishek Sharma don’t make big runs, then an opening for Sooryavanshi’s much-awaited international debut can be made. Ten Doeschate refused to hide behind scheduling constraints in Ireland being a factor in them losing the series.
"I think training more does give you a better chance to adapt. I think you also really need to tread carefully in terms of freshness and giving guys time off and making sure that they're mentally fresh for series as well. In hindsight, I wouldn't have done things differently.
“We got here on Thursday and, again, we know how hard the Irish are trying to put on good facilities. The training facilities weren't ideal, so we had a little hit there but of course you'd rather have three or four hits like you would for a normal tour.
"Again, no excuse. If we're really critical of ourselves, it's the desire to want to adapt and to play differently when you are presented with a different challenge. We put our hands up, and say that's something we need to get better at a lot quicker," he added.
Ten Doeschate, who played for Netherlands, was also effusive in his praise for Ireland’s landmark achievement. "Without being disrespectful, no. You mark guys player to player and what the Indian players have achieved in their careers. There's a couple of guys sitting there who have won two World Cups on the bounce.
“There's guys who have played hundreds of IPL games, and I think that sort of just underlines what an achievement it is (for Ireland). I wouldn't even say we had two bad days. I thought the Irish were fantastic over both days. Not a razzmatazz 240, 250 type of cricket. They (were) smart enough to navigate their way to two good scores.
“I mean we won both tosses as well. I'm pretty chuffed for them. It's obviously super disappointing to lose, but to see them make progress like that and just win by making the most of what they have is very impressive, and we take our hats off to them," ten Doeschate concluded.
