Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar said the decision of not including Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the first T20I against Ireland made sense. Sooryavanshi has been in red-hot form and many expected that he would make his debut in the series opener on Friday.

However, it wasn’t to be the case as India continued to back their first-choice openers – Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma, which Manjrekar thinks was the right call. 

Sooryavanshi had recently scored 776 runs in 16 matches of IPL 2026 at a blistering strike rate of 237.30 for Rajasthan Royals.

However, Abhishek and Samson have performed consistently in the last couple of years and deserve the backing of the team.

“Good call by India to not mess with their in-form openers, their T20 WC winning heroes. ‘Outside noise’ must remain just that…noise outside. While calmness & meritocracy presides in the dressing room,” Sanjay Manjrekar wrote on X.

On the other hand, India’s newly appointed captain, Shreyas Iyer, said they will back players who have done marvellous things throughout the season.

“He’s a gun player. But obviously, we’ve got tremendous experience in the squad who have done brilliantly in the past couple of series for India. So we are backing the majority of our cricketers who have been doing absolutely marvellous throughout the season,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abhishek Sharma scored 49 runs off 20 balls in the series opener, whereas Sanju Samson was dismissed cheaply in the run chase of 183 as India suffered a 34-run loss after getting bowled out at 148.

Furthermore, both Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson were dismissed for golden ducks in the second T20I against the home team in the run chase of 155 on Sunday.