After batting at number 3 in a solitary outing in the Australia tour, wicket-keeper Sanju Samson has seemingly lost his spot to Jitesh Sharma, who sparkled with a quick cameo in India’s win in Hobart in his customary lower-middle order spot.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra has slammed the team management for their muddled reasoning for Samson’s demotion from the opening spot since the arrival of vice-captain Shubman Gill and his subsequent snub from the XI.
FOLLOW LIVE: IND vs AUS 4th T20I
‘What are you doing with Samson’?
“The biggest question that is looming large is – what have we decided about Sanju Samson? Sanju not playing is a big, big, big question as to why we are doing like that. We played Sanju and he had done decently as well. I won’t say he had done extraordinarily, but he was okay. You made him bat up the order against Oman and he scored a fifty,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
Story continues below this ad
v U.A.E.
Dubai
v Pakistan
Dubai
v Oman
Abu Dhabi
v Pakistan
Dubai
v Bangladesh
Dubai
v Sri Lanka
Dubai
v Pakistan
Dubai
v Australia
Canberra
v Australia
Melbourne
v Australia
Hobart
v Australia
Queensland
Indian Express InfoGenIE
Copy HTML
Since the last T20 World Cup, Samson has been India’s third-highest run-scorer in all T20Is and revelled in the opening slot alongside Abhishek Sharma. Samson also struck a record three hundreds in the previous calendar year. Post the return of Gill for the Asia Cup in September, Samson was left with a middle-order role outside his usual slot in the top-order.
“You played him in the (Asia Cup) final and he scored a few runs. You only told us that he can bat down the order. We were saying you should make him open only, and if you are not doing that, play Jitesh. That was my original position, but you said you will be able to take care of Sanju Samson and will play him, and you know what you are doing. We respected that,” he added.
Will the same happen to Jitesh?
“You played him, the team won the Asia Cup, and we clapped. After that, his batting didn’t come in Canberra. Okay sir, no problems. You sent him at No. 3 in Melbourne. Surprise, but we say okay sir, but then you dropped him. Now I am unable to understand whether I should again say okay sir, because it’s not understandable what we are trying to do,” he said.
Chopra further questioned the team management for their wavering selections and quizzed whether they will provide the backing for Jitesh if he is preferred over Samson.
Story continues below this ad
“So whether Sanju Samson will play or not is a big question, in my opinion. If Jitesh was played and he has performed decently as well, scored 20-odd runs, logic says you will stay with him, but whether you will, I don’t know sir. I don’t have the answer to that question,” Chopra observed.