India, Sept. 13 -- There was no place for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 15-year-old in India's playing XI for the first T20I against Afghanistan, despite winning the Player of the Series accolade in the previous assignment against Zimbabwe. Skipper Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir opted to stick with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as the two openers for the first T20I of the three-match series against Afghanistan on Sunday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

The return of Samson, the T20 World Cup Player of the Tournament, was always going to complicate matters for the think tank, as the choice among him, Sooryavanshi and Abhishek was difficult.

Ahead of the series opener, Shreyas had admitted that it would be a tough call, and he woul...