Sanju Samson’s batting position will undoubtedly be a heated topic of conversation come Sunday, but the Indian team management is unlikely to make many changes to its starting eleven for the highly anticipated Asia Cup match against Pakistan.
Samson didn’t appear to be in the plan prior to the first game, but it became evident that the Kerala dasher would start ahead of Jitesh Sharma when he was rested for the optional workout on the day of the team’s tournament opener against the United Arab Emirates.
Samson’s role against stronger teams must be determined, even though the UAE match, in which captain Suryakumar Yadav entered the game after Abhishek Sharma was removed during the team’s 58-run chase, is not a reliable predictor.
Sunil Gavaskar recently commented that “Samson can’t be played below No. 3 and in that case Tilak Varma needs to come in at No. 5.”
In T20, ‘data points’ are more important than in the other two of the three forms.
Although Samson has had some success at two down, the evidence seems to indicate that he is essentially useless beyond the opening position. This is the issue since, in T20Is, left-handed Tilak is likewise not particularly effective after No. 3.
The captain himself is the third aspect in this triangle. Over the past few years, he has consistently batted at No. 3 for India, becoming a global beater.
There are two issues with Samson. First off, he has batted for India in 38 innings, 14 of which have been when he faced the innings’ opening ball (No. 1). With three hundreds and a fifty and an outstanding strike-rate of 182.2, he has scored 512 of his 861 runs in this position.
He has also batted at a variety of numbers between 2 and 7, but his most notable position was No. 4, when he played 11 innings, scored 164 runs, including a fifty, and had a strike-rate of 129.9, which was below average.
Consequently, he has batted at No. 1 or No. 4 in 25 of the 38 innings. His contributions have been minimal in every other spot, and he has a very low strike rate. Although he hasn’t encountered a lot of spin bowling in international matches, it also reflects the fact that he hasn’t exactly been successful in navigating the slow bowlers in the middle overs.
Second, it’s evident from Tilak’s Indian statistics that he enjoys batting at either No. 3 or No. 4, as the Andhra left-hander has done so in 21 of his 24 innings.
He has amassed 443 runs at a strike-rate of nearly 170 in 13 innings at number three, and both of his hundreds against South Africa have occurred during that time. At No. 4, he has amassed 256 runs from eight knocks at a strike-rate of over 138.
The captain and Tilak switching places as Nos. 3 and 4 in the current Indian lineup under Surya has been beneficial to the team.
However, given that Gill is at the top and the team management would rather have Samson, an extra top-order keeper-batter, than a finisher like Jitesh at the beginning of the competition, slots are becoming an issue.
Although the figures paint a very different picture, the Indian T20I captain has insisted that everyone from number three to number seven needs to be adaptable to the requirements of the squad, aside from openers who have set roles.
The issue with Samson being expected to bat in the middle order is that, on a slightly tackier pitch in Dubai than he would get in India or South Africa, he might not be able to dominate the slower bowlers.
He has a strike-rate of less than 140 against left-arm orthodox spinners and wrist-spinners (both right-arm and left-arm) in the IPL. He has scored 791 runs in 579 balls against wrist spinners with a strike-rate of 136.61 plus in 86 innings. He has a dot ball percentage of 32.64 and has been dismissed 22 times.
He can hit a wrist spinner for a maximum of 11.81 (around 12) deliveries because he has 49 sixes. At least one of Pakistan’s two wrist spinners, Abrar Ahmed and Sufiyan Muqeem (left-arm wrist spin), will undoubtedly play.
He has played wrist spinners in 15 innings of Twenty20 Internationals, and he has been removed seven times, or one out of every two knocks.
Samson had a somewhat better record against left-arm spinners in the IPL, scoring 695 runs from 503 balls at a strike-rate of 138.17. He has hit one six off every eight balls (7.85), and his dot ball percentage is 28.23. He has 34 of them.
Depending on the circumstances of the match and the availability of tweakers in the playing eleven, the spinners are mainly in action from overs 7 to 16–17.
Now that vice-captain Gill has forced Samson to give up his starting position, his best chance of succeeding is at No. 3.
