13, 14, 15…Vaibhav Sooryavanshi falls prey to a short ball again

3 min readUpdated: Jul 9, 2026 11:22 PM IST

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi of India plays a shotduring the 4th T20 International match between England and India at the Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol, England on July 9, 2026. (CREIMAS)

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s vulnerability against short deliveries was exploited yet again by England, as the opener perished for a 10-ball 15 in India’s fourth T20I against England, which is being played at the County Ground in Bristol. He has struggled against back-of-length deliveries in all three matches of his international career so far. Bowlers in international cricket are like sharks who smell blood. Archer has shown the way, others will take a leaf out of his book. If Sooryavanshi is to serve Indian cricket for long, he needs to score runs all around the world in different conditions and not just on flat wickets in the IPL. He’s just 15 and has time to learn new skills but the sooner he does it the better as India’s talent pool is overflowing.

Having found the strategy conducive in the previous two T20Is, Jofra Archer — a teammate of Sooryavanshi at Rajasthan Royals — banged the ball short twice in the first over. The wunderkind offered a swing on both occasions, but could not get the connection he desired.

Josh Tongue tried replicating the same in the second over, but strayed in his line and was dispatched into the stands by Sooryavanshi. Archer, however, predominantly bowled bodyline and required only eight deliveries at the 15-year-old to get his wicket for the second game running.

Wickets in the Powerplay! 👌

A strong start from our bowlers.

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— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 9, 2026

Trying to pull a delivery which bounced a few inches too much for his liking, Sooryavanshi holed out a catch to Sam Curran at mid-on, ending his 10-ball stay. With this dismissal, the southpaw has now accumulated only 42 runs in the three opportunities he has been given, with his scores being in a linear arithmetic progression: 13, 14 and 15.

Notably, a similar short delivery by Archer led to Sooryavanshi’s downfall in the previous fixture as well. On that occasion, he gloved a delivery aimed at the leg stump, and was caught by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. Off-spinner Will Jacks might have dismissed Sooryavanshi in the latter’s debut appearance in an Indian shirt, but a similar theme could be observed, with Archer and Tongue peppering him with short deliveries.