Published: Oct 08, 2024, 10:52 AM (IST)
Edited: Oct 08, 2024, 10:52 AM (IST)
Back when Sanju Samson made his debut in 2015, he was touted to be the next big thing in Indian cricket, however, 9 years later, his future in the Indian team remains to be uncertain.
However, the retirement of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma has once again opened doors for him in the shortest format as new head coach Gautam Gambhir and new skipper Suryakumar Yadav have decided to try him as an opener in the ongoing T20I series against Bangladesh.
In the first T20I, Samson opened the Indian innings alongside Abhishek Sharma. The wicketkeeper-batter looked in good touch, however wasn’t able to score big and eventually got dismissed after scoring 29 runs in 19 deliveries.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra was impressed with the way Samson batted in Gwalior and how he was focused on timing the ball rather than hitting it hard to find boundaries.
“You need to talk about Sanju Samson. Abhishek Sharma was playing amazingly well until he was there but he got run out. But how well did Sanju play. Gautam Gambhir said long back that if Sanju Samson doesn’t play for India, it’s India’s loss. He was made to open. The silken touch was seen. He wasn’t hitting the ball hard. It seemed like he didn’t want to hurt the ball, and he was hitting one four after another. When everyone was hitting, he also hit but by caressing the ball. You were getting hit, you were bleeding but you were not feeling the pain,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
However, the former Indian cricketer also pointed out that if Samson fails to score big in upcoming matches, then he will be dropped from the team once again.
“He is good. He scored 29 runs. My only thing was that since he had reached here, he should go slightly further ahead. He should score a few more runs because, otherwise, they would drop him. He keeps moving in and out (of the side), and up and down (the batting order),” Chopra said.
