It is not easy to be Sanju Samson these days, especially because he is in danger of losing his spot in the India playing eleven as the team seeks the ideal combination. When the Indian team entered the ICC Cricket Academy Arena for their evening net session ahead of the Asia Cup, Sanju Samson was the first to start his solo keeping drills with fielding coach T Dilip, even as others were just about lumbering up.
Sanju Samson was concentration personified and also earned praise for a full-stretched diving catch taken on his right, and then head coach Gautam Gambhir slowly walked up to him. For a full three minutes, Gambhir was immersed in a conversation with the Kerala man Sanju Samson , who was listening intently.
However, it seemed Gambhir was discussing the batting more than his keeping drills. If body language is any indicator, then Jitesh Sharma’s confident strides after emerging from the club house did say a lot. The RCB keeper looked relaxed and when the batting drills began, he along with Shivam Dube, Tilak Verma and Hardik Pandya took turns to bat with middle-order dashers getting the first go.
The most interesting part was that as the quartet batted, Sanju Samson was back in the ground in his batting gear but after some time, he quietly walked away from the melee and was seen sitting behind a palm tree near the dressing room club house.
One by one, vice-captain Shubman Gill, skipper Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, who also rolled his arm over, took turns to bat not once but twice and thrice, but Sanju Samson wasn’t summoned to bat even once during the whole phase. Later, he again came near the nets and once it was clear that he won’t bat, he casually sat on the ice box.
In the meanwhile, Dube, after a round of batting, bowled his medium pacers and again padded up to bat. And Samson was still sitting on that ice box. Finally, when everybody was done, Sanju Samson entered the nets. A net bowler served a half tracker, and he missed. That summed up his day. If anyone could derive anything from above practice session it was evident that Sanju samson might get a tough going for making a place in Playing XI for India.
Sanju Samson- A failed child of Destiny
Sanju Samson’s first 28 innings in international T20s produced just two half-centuries and 11 single-digit efforts. For all his immense talent and the mountain of attractive runs in the Indian Premier League, the right-hander from Kerala seemed destined for an India T20I career less fulfilled.
Then, without warning, he smashed three centuries in five innings in as many weeks in October-November last. Among them were successive hundreds against Bangladesh in Hyderabad and South Africa in Durban, making him the first Indian to stack up back-to-back tons in T20Is. It seemed as if Sanju Samson had, finally, turned the corner.
Sanju Samson at his best cuts a glorious sight, full of sinewy grace, impeccable timing and effortless placement. Sanju Samson hardly hits a ball in anger, yet it singes the turf on its way to a date with the boundary cushions or soars through the air to scatter the spectators in the stands. He suffuses onlookers with feelgood, he puts a smile on the fans’ faces with his sheer majesty and incandescence.
But Sanju Samson is as prone to frustrating his followers as he can exhilarate. After that electric phase, he hit an almost predictable trough, managing just 52 runs in the five-match series against England at home in January-February. As much as the string of low scores, what was alarming was an eerily similar mode of dismissal – caught at various positions on the leg-side, playing the pull shot time after time despite being rushed for pace, thrice against the slippery Jofra Archer.
It was during the last of those matches, at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, that Samson was struck on his right index finger by a lifter from Archer. The resultant fracture meant he wasn’t cleared fit to keep wickets at the beginning of Rajasthan Royals’ campaign in IPL 2025.
The designated skipper filled in as Impact Player, who only batted in the first three matches, Rajasthan clearly missing his proven leadership skills.Sanju Samson had a middling season with 285 runs from nine appearances while his side had a campaign to forget, finishing ninth among ten teams
Despite his travails against England, Sanju Samson might have felt he had done enough in the two preceding series to deserve a longer rope at the top of the batting order. But it now appears as if he must reconcile to a spell on the sidelines. The return of Shubman Gill to the T20I side after 13 months, as Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy, indicates that he will slot in as one of the openers.
His partner, almost certainly, will be Punjab teammate Abhishek Sharma, and not necessarily because the latter ticks one of the huge projects of the Suryakumar-Gautam Gambhir leadership group – his left-handedness. In 17 T20Is, the 25-year-old Abhishek has already slammed two centuries, striking at 193.84; his last outing for the country netted 135, off a mere 54 deliveries, against the shell-shocked Englishmen at the Wankhede. It helps that he is also a handy left-arm spinner.
A case is being made out for Samson to bat at No. 3, but how does one displace Tilak Varma, who made successive tons after asking for and getting that position from Suryakumar in South Africa. Sanju Samson has amassed almost all his T20 runs at the top of the order and there isn’t enough evidence of what he can or can’t do at No. 5 and beyond.
That perhaps gives Jitesh Sharma the edge; from Jharkhand and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the spunky stumper was one of the influencers behind RCB’s march to their maiden IPL title at the 18th time of asking. His 261 runs in 11 knocks came at the frenetic strike-rate of 176.35, all in the second half of the innings.
Former India cricketer Kris Srikkanth has unveiled his choice of Indian playing XI for their first game of the Asia Cup 2025. India, which is placed in Group A, will clash with the UAE on September 10, 2025, in Dubai in their first match.