Former South African player AB de Villiers believes Vaibhav Suryavanshi should return to India’s playing 11 for the third and final T20I against Afghanistan in Delhi on September 17. Despite his Player of the Series performance in India’s last T20I series in Zimbabwe, he has warmed the bench in the first two games of the ongoing Afghanistan series as well.

On the eve of the final T20I, De Villiers said on his YouTube channel, AB de Villiers 360, “The big talking point has been Suryavanshi not having a game yet. I think he will get an opportunity in the final match. The focus for Shreyas Iyer was on clinching the series and making it back-to-back series wins to build confidence in the team with him leading. But we should see Suryavanshi in the third T20I. The competition around the Indian top order is monumental at the moment.”

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“It’s really difficult for a youngster, even though he’s so talented and played incredible cricket against Zimbabwe, to play. You just really have to break the door down even further. And it’s not a bad thing for a youngster to go through a stepping stone to ultimately knock the door down and cement your spot in the side. It’s also a bit of pressure on the more established players, with this youngster waiting for his opportunity to pounce,” he again added.

AB de Villiers also applauded Abhishek Sharma for his match-winning performances in the first two T20Is against Afghanistan. he is the leading scorer with 121 runs at an average of over 60 and a strike rate of 237.25 as well.

“Abhishek Sharma has really blown Afghanistan out of the water. He is intimidating them almost with the bat in hand. Afghanistan have never had enough runs in both matches. With the openers India have and the fast starts they get, they can almost go run-a-ball in the middle overs and the back end to make it to the finish line,” concluded AB de Villiers.