'We haven't seen Sanju-Vaibhav yet' - Deep Dasgupta on India's opening pair

India have named their squad for the Afghanistan T20I series scheduled for September 13-17 at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. The squad includes Sanju Samson, who returns after missing India's tour of Zimbabwe in July, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old retained for the series. Both players are now available together for selection, creating fresh possibilities for India's opening combination.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has impressed in recent international cricket. During the Zimbabwe tour, he scored a 49-ball 81 and emerged as the highest run-getter as India blanked the hosts 3-0. Earlier, in three England T20Is, he made scores of 14, 13 and 15 before his breakthrough performance in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, Sanju Samson was dropped during the England series, which temporarily separated him from his pairing with Abhishek Sharma.

Dasgupta emphasised that India should explore all available opening combinations before the 2028 World Cup. The former India wicketkeeper-batter stressed that the Afghanistan series provides an ideal opportunity to test different pairings and understand which combination works best for the team's long-term planning.

"Straight away, if you think about the last match (England T20Is), it was Sanju and Abhishek. Leave Zimbabwe aside. When all three were available, Sanju and Abhishek were there. I think we haven’t seen the Sanju-Vaibhav combination yet. So far, we’ve seen Abhishek-Vaibhav and Abhishek-Sanju, right? It’s not a bad idea to even try and see what kind of combination Sanju and Vaibhav can make," said Dasgupta on his YouTube channel.

"Again, I’m not saying, please don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about dropping anyone here. I’m just saying, reiterating again, that the idea is that before the World Cup, you want to give every combination and every individual a proper chance and proper game time to understand what works," he added.

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Building towards the World Cup

Looking ahead to the next six to eight months of T20 cricket, Dasgupta outlined India's approach to squad rotation and player management. He highlighted that the team will cycle through multiple players across different series rather than making permanent decisions about inclusions or exclusions at this stage.

"That’s why I’m saying that when it comes to T20 cricket, I was reading some articles where I saw people saying, ‘You know, this guy is back and this guy is back again.’ But in T20 cricket, over the next six to eight months, nobody is back and nobody is sacked. According to me, there are 20-25 players who will play in rotation. Some will be back, while some will be left out. But the idea is that two to three months before a tournament, like the World Cup, you get a proper team," Dasgupta said.