Vaibhav up top, Samson at No. 3: India's best T20I batting order isn't the one Gambhir is likely to pick

Somewhere in the Indian dressing room in Lucknow tonight sits a 15-year-old with an Asian Games gold medal, an IPL hundred and a habit of going after the new ball from the very first over. And the most likely place for him when the first ball is bowled against West Indies is the dugout.

That is not a scandal. Sanju Samson was the Player of the Tournament when India won the T20 World Cup, and Abhishek Sharma is one of the most destructive openers in the world. But it is worth asking a simple question: is the best version of this batting order really the one India is about to pick?

We think there is a better answer. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi opens with Abhishek. Samson bats at No. 3.

What the management has said

Nobody is hiding the plan. Head coach Gautam Gambhir has said Sooryavanshi "will have to wait for his opportunity" because of "the players who have done well for a long time." Captain Shreyas Iyer put it even more plainly: "we have been playing with World Cup-winning openers right now, and they deserve the time."

The selections back that up. Sooryavanshi has been in the senior squad since the June tour of the UK, but he sat out the whole Ireland series, got a short run in England and then made way for Samson, and was an unused member of the squad that beat Afghanistan 3-0. It took VVS Laxman's Asian Games side to give him a proper go at the top.

The case for Vaibhav at the top

• He is built for the powerplay. Sooryavanshi's game is about the first six overs: he attacks the new ball from the first delivery, and he does it without needing time to get in. In the Asian Games semi-final against Sri Lanka he made 38 off 21 balls with six fours and two sixes on a day when no other Indian apart from Ishan Kishan got past 13.
• The ceiling is enormous. This is a batter who hit a 35-ball IPL hundred at the age of 14. Ceilings matter in T20 cricket, where one innings can win a game on its own.
• Opening is the only spot where he makes sense. Sooryavanshi is a top-order hitter. Batting him at No. 5 or 6 against spin and a softer ball would waste exactly what makes him special.
• The best time to blood him is now. A five-match home series against West Indies, with no World Cup around the corner, is about as low-risk as international cricket gets. Waiting for the "right moment" can quietly turn into waiting forever.

Why Samson fits at No. 3

This is the part of the argument that gets missed. Moving Samson to No. 3 is not a demotion. It might be the most valuable place to use him.

• He solves a left-hand problem. Sooryavanshi and Abhishek are both left-handers. Put Ishan Kishan, another left-hander, at No. 3 and India's top three are all lefties, which makes life easy for a captain with an off-spinner. A right-handed Samson at No. 3 breaks that up straight away.
• No. 3 in T20 is still a top-order job. If either opener goes early, Samson is in during the powerplay with the field up, which is exactly where he does his best work.
• He can bat long. Samson's three T20I hundreds in 2024, against Bangladesh and twice in South Africa, came from batters who can turn a start into a big innings. That is precisely the skill a No. 3 needs when the openers are a pair of 15-ball blitzers.
• He is experienced enough to adapt. A World Cup winner is far better placed to take on a new role than a 15-year-old is to bat out of position.

The honest counter-argument

It would be unfair to pretend this is a no-brainer.

Samson has not looked comfortable in the experiment so far. At the Asian Games he batted at No. 3 and made just 9 runs in two innings. Before that, he had a rough series in Ireland, including two first-ball ducks. The management will argue, with some reason, that he is at his best as an opener and that moving him again would unsettle the Player of the Tournament from their World Cup win.

There is also Sooryavanshi's own record at this level. His first T20I chances in England brought 14, 13 and 15. Promising starts, but not yet the scores that force a selector's hand. And Kishan, fresh from carrying India to the Asian Games final with an unbeaten 80, has his own claim on the No. 3 spot.

What India will probably do

Going by everything Gambhir and Iyer have said and done since June, the likely top three tonight is Samson and Abhishek opening, with Kishan at No. 3. Sooryavanshi is likely to carry the drinks again.

It is the safe choice, and safe choices are easy to defend after a win. But a five-match series gives India room to be braver. Even two games for Sooryavanshi at the top, with Samson at No. 3, would tell the team management far more than another month of net sessions.

Our verdict

India's best T20I side long-term almost certainly has Sooryavanshi in it, and the sooner he settles at the top, the better. Samson at No. 3 keeps a World Cup winner in the side, fixes the left-hand imbalance, and gives India both power and a batter who can go long.

The management will probably go the other way tonight. We hope the series goes long enough for them to change their minds.

What would your top three be? Follow the toss, playing XIs and live score on TryBall.