Spent All Five Matches Sitting in the Dressing Room: Wonder Boy Suryavanshi Gets No Place in the XI in the West Indies Series

India's wonder boy Vaibhav Suryavanshi had to spend the entire five-match series sitting in the dressing room. The 15-year-old opener did not get a chance in the playing eleven in a single match of the T20 series against the West Indies at home. Naturally, the question has arisen - has India's interest in Suryavanshi waned?

Suryavanshi made his debut for India in July this year. Since then he has played 8 matches for the national team. In this time he has scored 246 runs, including two fifties, at an average of 30.75. The numbers say this teenage batsman was able to leave his mark right from the start in international cricket.

Suryavanshi first became known through explosive batting in the IPL. That same aggressive style has been seen in his batting for the national team too. His strike rate in international T20s is 186.36 - meaning that stepping onto the big stage, he was not overawed, and played his natural game.

So why was he not played even once against the West Indies? The answer lies not in his performance or form, but in the combination of the Indian team. The three places in the top order of India's T20 team are firmly settled at the moment.

Those three places are occupied by Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan. So to include Suryavanshi in the eleven, someone like Abhishek or Samson would have had to be rested. The Indian team management did not take that path in the West Indies series.

However, the fact that he would not be given a chance in even one match of a long five-match series raised many eyebrows. Instead of grooming young talent by playing them in matches, how justified it is to keep him sitting through an entire series is also being discussed.

After the final match of the series in Bengaluru on Saturday night, India captain Shreyas Iyer was asked about Suryavanshi. In reply, Iyer said, 'I keep telling Suryavanshi, the opportunity will come. If you keep working consistently following your own process, sometimes you have to wait.'

Iyer also said, 'We have two outstanding openers. These are the things we are discussing with Suryavanshi.' It is clear from the captain's words that the young opener's wait is being prolonged because the team does not want to break its current combination.

Without Suryavanshi, India finished the series against the West Indies level at 2-2. There was no result in the deciding fifth T20 because of rain.

In a 9-over game before the rain came in the final match, India had scored 118 runs for 5 wickets in 7.4 overs. After that, no further play was possible, so the fate of the series too remained level.

All in all, although the series has ended, Suryavanshi's wait has not. There is no doubt that the opportunity will come, as the captain assured; but when that opportunity comes, and how much he can make use of it if it does, remains to be seen.