Team India bowling coach Morne Morkel has advised the teen batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to learn just by being around the Indian team and interacting with the veteran players around the squad despite not getting enough game time.
Speaking at the pre-series press conference ahead of the five-match T20I series against the West Indies, Morkel asserted that the more time Sooryavanshi spends at this standard, the better it will be for his game.
“We all know the talent of Vaibhav. I think the more time he spends in this environment, with quality players, the more time he trains at this standard, it will only be great for his cricket,” Morkel said.
“If he’s not getting that game time, he’s still on a bus, in the dugout, in the hotel with guys with a lot of experience. Just actually watching how the guys go through their processes and how they set up innings will be key for him. I always ask him on the bus, ‘What’s the one thing you’ve learned today? Tell me, what did you think about that guy’s batting?’ And that makes him think,” Morkel added.
Sooryavanshi, who was part of the just-concluded Asian Games 2026 event in Japan, scored 38 off 21 in the semi-final against Sri Lanka and 15 off nine in the grand finale against Pakistan. In eight T20Is so far, Sooryavanshi has amassed 246 runs with two half-centuries.
Further, Morkel didn’t reveal India’s playing XI for the first T20I, but hinted that they might not stick to the Asian Games XI. The first T20I will commence at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday, October 6.
“That’s the combination they felt for them at the Asian Games. We’ll work out tonight here what is the best combination for us going into the series. We’ll all assess how everybody’s feeling after jet lag, after travelling, and then from there, make a plan,” he concluded.
