India have left out young opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and rested fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah for their historic one-off T20I against Japan on Tuesday, September 22. Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first at the Sano International Cricket Ground, with the match reduced to five overs per side.
The match is the first-ever men’s cricket meeting between India and Japan. It was planned to celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Notably, tt also gives India an opportunity to prepare for the Asian Games 2026, where they will look to defend their gold medal.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Jasprit Bumrah Snubbed from India XI
India opted for Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as their opening pair. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is not included in the playing XI, while Jasprit Bumrah has also been rested for the historic T20I against Japan after playing all three T20Is against Afghanistan in Delhi last week.
Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Yash Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh.
Sooryavanshi made an underwhelming international debut during India’s T20I series against England in July. The young left-hander scored 42 runs in three innings, with a best of 15.
However, he bounced back strongly during India’s subsequent tour of Zimbabwe. Sooryavanshi scored 151 runs in three innings at an average of 50.33 and a strike rate of 196.10 to win the Player of the Series award.
However, Sooryavanshi did not feature in India’s three-match T20I series against Afghanistan after Sanju Samson returned to the playing XI.
Shreyas Iyer Backs India’s Five-Over Approach Against Japan
With only five overs available to each side, Shreyas Iyer backed India’s aggressive batting approach. Speaking at the toss, Iyer also highlighted the importance of the occasion, with the match marking 75 years of diplomatic relations between India and Japan.
“We are going to bat first. It is obviously a big occasion. We know about the friendship of 75 years. It is going to be an exciting one. We wanted to explore the conditions. Five-over game. That will be our forte to bat first,” Shreyas Iyer said.
The one-off T20I is the first men’s international cricket meeting between India and Japan. It also gives India an opportunity to get used to the local conditions before the Asian Games campaign.
I Never Envisioned That I Would Be Coming to Japan – Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer also spoke about captaining India in Japan and acknowledged the strong popularity of baseball in the country. He said the match would give India valuable exposure to the conditions ahead of the Asian Games.
“I never envisioned that I would be coming to Japan and captaining one day. I know that baseball is quite big here. But today, the crowd is decent. There is a lot of support. It is important that we give them something and also the people watching back home.
“It is important that we know the conditions and we know what is happening around there. We don’t know how the pitches are there. But this game will be of great practice for us heading there. Just waiting for that moment to arrive,” he added.
Captain Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming will be one of Japan’s key players. He is the only batter in the squad to have scored more than 1,000 T20I runs. Declan Suzuki-McComb and Ibrahim Takahashi are the only other Japan players in the squad to have played more than 50 T20Is.
Japan are without their leading T20I wicket-taker Sabaorish Ravichandran, who was not included because of Asian Games eligibility rules. The hosts will next face Afghanistan and Nepal in the Asian Games.
Source: cricketaddictor.com
