Former Team India keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik advises the Indian cricket team to drop their opener, Abhishek Sharma, if they want to fit Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the playing eleven for the remaining match of the ongoing five-match T20I series against the New Zealand National Cricket Team.

Karthik's comment came after the fourth match of the series, where the hosts handed the Men in Blue an 87-run defeat at Eden Park in Auckland. As Ishan Kishan made a comeback after missing the previous two matches because of an injury, the Indian team management dropped Vaibhav Sooryavanshi from the playing combination.

Dinesh Karthik asks Team India to drop Abhishek Sharma

Dinesh Karthik noted that whenever the team management felt like playing Sooryavanshi, they had dropped Sanju Samson. But emergence of the 15-year-old, does not seem make any harm to Abhishek Sharma's place in the team, as the management plays Sharma in almost every single match.

Amid the growing pressure over the players' workload management, Dinesh Karthik asked the head coach Gautam Gambhir-led team management to drop Abhishek Sharma from the playing eleven if they want to play Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the India vs New Zealand 5th T20I match. The fifth match of the five-match T20I series will be held on Sunday, November 1 in Hamilton.

“I know the world will want Vaibhav to play. If they want to play Vaibhav, it has got to be in place of Abhishek, to give him a break, and that is how it should be. Every time there is anything related to Vaibhav, it is always Sanju. If you want to really fit in Vaibhav, Abhishek can take a break. The key word here is break," Karthik said on Cricbuzz.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi played because of Ishan Kishan's injury

The former cricketer suggested the combination of Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi only to offer Abhishek Sharma a break. If the team management decides to give Sharma a break, then Samson and Sooryavanshi will be the automatic choice as the openers, with Ishan Kishan as the No.3 batter.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has so far played only a couple of games in the series. That two games he was allowed to play only because of the injury of Ishan Kishan. In the second match of the series, Sooryavanshi played as the No.3 batter, in place of Ishan's batting position.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi played a blistering 45-run knock

In the new role, the young batter failed to deliver as he was dismissed for only 4 runs. In the following match, Sooryavanshi was sent back to his original batting position, which is opening the innings, and he shone again, smashing 45 runs off 19 balls with four 4s and four 6s while India was chasing 199 runs.

New Zealand got one of their biggest victories against India in the format today. Sooryavanshi was not a part of the match. Under the pressure of the 260-run target, Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma scored 4 and 27, respectively, while Ishan Kishan was dismissed for a three-ball duck.