It was the first time that Sanju Samson was playing an international game on his home ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday (January 31). It might well have been his last game too. The Kerala batter was dismissed for 6(6) which included a boundary that came off an outside edge. It took his series aggregate to a paltry 46 runs across five games.
Barring a miracle, Samson will lose his spot to Ishan Kishan when T20 World Cup 2026 begins. For a batter who smashed three international tons in 2024 in this format, what's gone wrong for Samson? His failures in the 2025 Asia Cup could be excused as he was moved down the batting order for Shubman Gill's inclusion. But, what about the other matches before and after this phase?
Even in the Asia Cup, there was a composed fifty batting in the middle order even though the role was unfamiliar to him. Samson, though, always preferred to be a top-order bat, preferably opening the batting. Yet, as an opener, he doesn't have a fifty-plus score in 11 successive innings.
What is Samson's weakness? Clearly, it seems to be pace bowling. It's not like he struggles or fears to face fast bowlers but his high-risk options against pace aren't working. Since January 2025, Samson has gotten out 10 times in the powerplay in T20Is and only averages 12.76 against pace with 13 of his 16 dismissals coming against quick bowling.
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It was England who started using the short ball plan against Samson in January 2025 when he was in peak form with the bat. Samson ended with scores of 26, 5, 3, 1 and 16. There was a long gap in India's T20I schedule after this and when it resumed, the Gill episode happened. Now, with Samson back to opening the batting, it seems to be a deja vu of the England series.
Kishan has already proved himself to be the better wicketkeeper batter in terms of form and confidence. Unless the Jharkhand man suffers an injury scare, he is set to open the batting with Abhishek Sharma in the T20 World Cup. As for Samson, he will need to wait for his chance and importantly, grab them when they come.