Vaibhav Suryavanshi heartbroken after captain Jitesh Sharma, other seniors do harakiri, India A lose to Bangladesh
Vaibhav Suryavanshi cut a disappointed and frustrating figure as he was forced to watch India A's failures in the Rising Stars Cup from the sidelines.
India A were bounced out of the Asia Cup Rising Stars 2025 in a hotly contested semi-final against Bangladesh A. Chasing 195 in their 20 overs, India A somehow managed to reach the Super Over after running three runs in a chaotic and nearly comedic final ball.
However, the Super Over itself proved to be even more controversial, as 14-year-old phenom Vaibhav Suryavanshi was not sent in to bat despite his high strike rate and power hitting abilities throughout this tournament.
India would lose both their Super Over wickets in the first two balls of their innings, as Jitesh Sharma and then Ashutosh Sharma were dismissed back-to-back by Ripon Mondol. On the sidelines, Suryavanshi was caught by cameras looking despondent and disappointed at how India had managed to lose the match from a dominant position in their chase.
India A had needed 31 runs in the last three overs with wickets in hand, but found themselves on the wrong end of the result after some excellent death bowling by the Bangladesh seamers and an inability to finish off the innings from the Indian lower order.
The youngster led run scoring for India in the tournament and had also gotten India off to a fast start in this match with 38 runs of just 15 deliveries before he was dismissed. Given his power hitting abilities, the decision not to send him in for the Super Over was questioned by many Indian fans.
Jitesh's ‘hit sixes at will’ rationale for Super Over choices
When asked for the rationale in the post-match presentation, captain Jitesh explained that the decision was made by him and the team to send in their death-overs specialists, including himself, Ramandeep Singh, and Ashutosh. While this was a reasonable given the old ball, a spread field, and a seamer in Mondol who was nailing his yorkers, the result meant the decision went under the microscope anyway.
Suryavanshi at the time led the run-scoring charts in the tournament with 239 runs, including 22 maximums in the four innings he had played. Even if he was shielded from the pressure given his young age, the cameras picked up Suryavanshi’s frustration and disappointment and not being given the chance to lead his team to a win.
India A would be disappointed with a tame showing this tournament, containing losses to both Pakistan Shaheens and Bangladesh A. For several of the players, this will be seen as an opportunity lost to try and wrestle their way into the Indian senior setup. For Suryavanshi himself, this might be seen as a start to a promising career yet to come.
