Sanju Samson or Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who should open?:5 challenges India must overcome ahead of IND-ENG T20I series

After suffering a couple of defeats to Ireland in the two-match T20I series in Belfast, Team India shift their focus to the upcoming five-match T20I series against England. Despite being three-time T20 World Cup champions, the Men in Blue have several areas to address as they look to adapt to the challenging European conditions and bounce back with a strong performance against England. With the high-profile series around the corner, India will be keen to resolve key concerns that emerged during the tour of Ireland. From Sanju Samson’s disappointing form and the possibility of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi making his international debut to Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy issues and the team’s recurring batting collapses, here are five major challenges India must overcome ahead of the England T20I series. India’s 5 challenges ahead of IND vs ENG T20I series 1) Samson’s poor form, Sooryavanshi’s potential international debut After an outstanding IPL season for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Sanju Samson failed in the two-match T20I series against Ireland as he was shut down by Indian-origin Jai Moondra in both matches. He has scored only 5 runs with a strike rate of 100. On the other hand, Abhishek Sharma could only score 50 runs in two matches played with a strike rate of 238.1. As the openers failed to help India win the series, the critics backed Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to make his international debut against England. It will be a challenging decision for the team management to choose among Samson, Abhishek, and Sooryavanshi for the first match on 1 July, with the T20 World Cup 2026 success and the IPL performances of all three players as the decisive factors. 2) India’s batting order exposed after consecutive batting collapses In back-to-back matches, India’s batting order collapsed against the Irish side at Belfast. Tilak Verma, with 74 runs, was the highest run-scorer for India despite his poor strike rate. Shreyas Iyer (13), Ishan Kishan (13) and Suryansh Shedge (1) completely failed to handle the middle-order after Samson and Abhishek’s early dismissals. Despite the top-order collapse, Shivam Dube (45) tried a little bit to survive but couldn’t make India cross the victory line. The second challenge for the management is to fix the middle-order to score or chase against England in their home conditions. 3) Chasing 150+ runs in T20Is at European conditions India have always struggled in the European conditions across formats. The swing and pace conditions might trouble the Men in Blue’s batting approach away from home, especially after a long IPL season at home pitches. India failed to chase 150+ runs consecutively twice against Ireland in Belfast. In such a case, English conditions will be a nightmare for the Indian batters in the upcoming T20I series. Gautam Gambhir and team will focus on adapting to the English conditions soon to survive a long England T20I series, followed by a three-match ODI series. 4) Axar Patel or Washington Sundar: India’s strategy and combination Team India will also have to focus on their strategy against England and make sure to play the correct playing combinations after facing defeat to Ireland in the T20I series. In European conditions, Asian teams generally prefer only one spinner or a spin-bowling all-rounder to balance the XI. After the Ireland series, playing Washington Sundar could be a gamble as he was highly expensive against Ireland, conceding runs with an economy of 19.00. While, On the other hand, Axar Patel he has taken 2 wickets and conceded runs with an economy of 7.62. Notably, Axar and Washington are both World Cup-winning heroes; Indian management has to work on the combinations to make them play against England. 5) Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy and bowling changes Team India’s new T20I captain, Shreyas Iyer, couldn’t impress the management and the Indian fans despite being an IPL champion. After Rishabh Pant, he has become only the second Indian captain to lose his first two T20 International matches as captain. In the series against Ireland, he could only score 13 runs in two matches with a strike rate of 92.85. His highest score in this series was 10. His bowling changes also left many fans puzzled, as despite Harshit Rana and Axar Patel’s great spells, he didn’t complete their bowling quota of four overs. Instead, he insisted Suryansh Shedge bowl two crucial overs, where he conceded 25 runs in the second T20I. Shreyas’ captaincy will be tested further as he aims to win his first T20I series against England.