India’s young batting core has spent the week basking in the glow of a 3-0 sweep over Afghanistan. Fireworks, social clips, Player-of-the-Series medals – the full modern package.
Sandeep Patil chose this exact moment to reach for the cold water.
The 1983 World Cup winner and former chief selector looked past Abhishek Sharma’s blistering 30-ball hundred in the third T20I and straight at a flaw he believes India cannot afford to ignore. Speaking to SportsNext, he picked out Abhishek and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi as the latest examples of a familiar Indian story: dominant at home, exposed when the ball moves abroad.
“Just because you are a lion at home in India, you shouldn’t become a cat when you go overseas,” Patil said.
A century… but not a cure
On the surface, Abhishek’s recent arc looks like a dream. Promoted, unleashed, and crowned Player of the Series after a savage ton against Afghanistan in Delhi. A left-hander made for highlight reels, finally exploding on the international stage.
Scratch the surface and the numbers tell a more complicated tale.
Across the tours of Ireland, England, and Zimbabwe, Abhishek scraped together 191 runs in 10 innings. An average of 19.1. Just one fifty. For a player built to attack from ball one, that’s not a blip, it’s a trend.
Patil’s point lands squarely there. He made it clear he was not shocked by Abhishek’s century. The talent, the intent, the ability to clear the ropes early – none of that has ever been in doubt for either Abhishek or Sooryavanshi. His worry sits elsewhere: what happens when the surfaces are unfamiliar, the skies heavy, and the ball refuses to come on?
Delhi against Afghanistan did not ask that question. Dublin, Chester-le-Street and Harare did.
Sooryavanshi on the sidelines
If Abhishek’s story is about a revival, Sooryavanshi’s current chapter is about pause.
He spent the Afghanistan series watching from the dugout, as Sanju Samson and Abhishek locked down the top order. No runs, no innings, just a front-row seat to a contest he wasn’t part of.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir has already gone on record urging patience, insisting the management is still working out where Sooryavanshi fits. Patil, though, went straight to the technical and mental examination that awaits the young opener.
“With due respect to Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, we have noticed that when they travelled outside India and the ball started moving around a little, they faced some difficulties. These two young players will also have to pay attention to that aspect and work on it,” he said.
The reference is clear. Sooryavanshi’s rapid rise through franchise cricket and his early international exposure have come with a catch: he has not yet had enough time, or enough innings, to build a method against genuine seam and swing. Franchise leagues rarely throw up the kind of probing new-ball spells that Test venues in England or even early-season white-ball games in Ireland can produce.
Timing that stings, data that backs it
On another day, Patil’s intervention might have sounded harsh. Criticising a youngster right after a career-defining hundred is an easy way to be painted as out of touch or overly demanding.
But the numbers back his argument almost point for point.
Abhishek’s lean returns in Ireland, England, and Zimbabwe did not come on raging green tops, yet his returns dipped sharply once the ball moved even a fraction more than it does on flat Indian pitches. The pattern is too clear, and too recent, to be waved away as early-career turbulence.
Sooryavanshi’s case is even more instructive. Fast-tracked, hyped, then benched as soon as conditions and opposition exposed his issues against the moving ball. India’s selectors and coaches have seen this movie before: a dazzling IPL résumé, a few explosive knocks at home, then a hard landing overseas.
Patil’s warning, stripped of metaphor, is simple. Being a destroyer in Delhi or Mumbai is no longer enough. India’s next generation of top-order batters will be judged on what they do when the ball swings at Lord’s, seams in Wellington, or nips around under lights in Johannesburg.
The celebration over Afghanistan was deserved. The question is whether Abhishek and Sooryavanshi use this moment of comfort to confront the one challenge that still shadows their promise: can the lion finally roar when the ball starts moving?
