Belfast, 25 June  

Accommodating teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the starting eleven will be the toughest riddle for the team management when India steps into a new T20 era under Shreyas Iyer in the first of a two-match series against Ireland here on Friday.

There is heightened interest surrounding Sooryavanshi's possible international debut after the 15-year-old's stunning run in the IPL and a marauding 29-ball 94 for India A against Sri Lanka A in a tri-series one-day match at Dambulla. But acceding to the popular demand will not be easy for the think tank.

Currently, India's top three are: Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan. And their overall and recent T20 records are not easy to ignore. Samson, Abhishek and Kishan made fifties in the ICC T20 World Cup final win over New Zealand in March, which was also India's last assignment in the shortest format.

If the management wants to include Sooryavanshi, an opener, then one of Samson or Abhishek will have to go down or sit out, and that is a harsh step in the aftermath of a World Cup title win.

The bigwigs can push Samson down to the middle-order, as he has batted at No. 4 and No. 5 in the past. But those slots will now be taken by skipper Iyer and his deputy Tilak Varma, leaving No. 6 the only open space. However, it traditionally belongs to an all-rounder and India have multiple choices in Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and newcomer Suryansh Shedge.

Placing Samson at No. 6 will force India to enter the field with just five bowlers, and that department already wears a thin look in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammmad Siraj and Varun Chakravarthy.

Even otherwise, Samson has excellent numbers at the poleposition -- 926 from 28 innings with three hundreds and four fifties, striking at 181.93. His strike-rate at Nos 3, 4 and 5 respectively are not particularly confidence-inspiring 121, 129 and 127 respectively.

Abhishek, the No.1 T20I batter, too has been vastly effective as an opener, making 1414 runs from 43 innings with two hundreds and 10 fifties. His strike-rate is a brilliant 192.38. Abhishek (563), Kishan (602) and Samson (477) had good outings in IPL 2026 as well. Additionally, Kishan has also notched a 125 recently against Afghanistan in the second ODI at Lucknow.

So, head coach Gautam Gambhir and Iyer will have to think deeply, whether to hand a debut to Sooryavanshi or keep the winning combination intact for the time being. But the presence of Sooryavanshi will add pressure on Samson and Abhishek to make a sustained impact, or be in the dangerous dropping zone.

At a personal level, Iyer will be eager to start his full-time captaincy stint with a series win and underline his leadership abilities, evident while he was skipper of Kolkata Knight Riders in a title-winning 2024 season. He also led Punjab Kings to the IPL final a year later.

On the bowling front, India have a second-string line-up but this series and the following one against England offer them a fine chance to prove their mettle. Harshit Rana's return from injury has given India more options in the pace unit, but he will have intense competition from Prasidh Krishna and Prince Yadav.

Both Prasidh and Prince are in fine fettle, and the former also took a career-best fifer in the third ODI against Afghanistan recently in Chennai.

Ireland, on the other hand, is missing several front-line players like Josh Little, Mark Adair, Paul Stirling and Curtis Campher owing to injuries. They also have a new captain in Lorcan Tucker, besides having some capable T20 players such as George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Harry Tector and the Indian-origin Jai Moondra in their home conditions.

But stopping the reigning T20 world champions will require a whole lot more than that.

Teams

India: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma (vice-captain), Ravi Bishnoi, Abhishek Sharma, Suryansh Shedge, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Ireland: Lorcan Tucker (captain), Ross Adair, Ben Calitz, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Stephen Doheny, Matthew Humphreys, Gavin Hoey, Matthew Hollard, Liam McCarthy, Jai Moondra, Harry Tector, Tim Tector, Reuben Wilson.

Match starts at 6pm IST.