India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak on Friday reaffirmed the team management’s support for Sanju Samson while acknowledging that the struggling batsman has been going through a lean period.
Samson has only amassed 40 runs from four games at an average of 10 in the current five-match T20I series against New Zealand.
“Sanju is a senior player, he is very good. He probably has not scored as many runs as everybody would like, but that’s part of the cricketing career. Sometimes you have five innings in a row where you score so many runs and sometimes you have a little tight period,” PTI quoted Kotak as saying on the eve of the final T20I in Thiruvananthapuram.
Kotak stated that Samson has the support of the team’s think tank during this difficult period.
“It’s all up to an individual how to keep his mind strong and, obviously, our job is to keep him in a good frame of mind. He is practicing and he is working hard, so we all know what Sanju is capable of. I don’t think anything more to say about Sanju because he has been really good,” he added.
Samson was observed working hard at the nets today at Greenfield Stadium for around thirty minutes, as Kotak had predicted. After facing side-armers Hari and Raghu at the beginning of the session, the right-hander had a couple hits against left-arm spinner Axar Patel.
He then took a break from the nets to speak briefly with bowling coach Morne Morkel and head coach Gautam Gambhir. It will be Samson’s first international game at home if he plays on Saturday.
According to Kotak, the current white-ball series against the Kiwis and the previous one against South Africa have been fantastic chances for India to be ready for the T20 World Cup.
“It’s been a very important series for us. It is obviously useful because before the World Cup you kind of start getting into a rhythm, you start finding the combinations and you try and give players an opportunity. All that you can do when we are playing. So, these five games, and obviously, before that South Africa (series) is also very useful for us,” he said.
Ishan Kishan, who missed the fourth Twenty20 International due to an undisclosed ailment, is expected to play on Saturday, according to Kotak.
“Ishan Kishan has always been good whenever he got an opportunity. Sometimes wicketkeeper batters don’t get opportunities. But whenever Ishan has played, he has always done well. The way he played two innings was really encouraging because in power play, you are looking for someone to play the way he played. And very likely (he will play), at the moment, as far as I know. The physio is here for practice. So, physios will take a call. But I feel very likely,” he said.
The squad has been able to maintain an aggressive batting line in this series thanks to the presence of aggressive batsmen like Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, and Abhishek Sharma, according to the former Saurashtra batter.
“Some of the players are aggressive and what we plan, we go sorting through that and depending on wickets in hand and the situation, and whether we are chasing or posting, it will help us. But fortunately we have players, who can play very aggressively and there have been such good players in India as well, so that’s a great thing,” he added.
After that, Kotak provided an analysis on Abhishek’s batting, which has been done solely in high gear throughout this series.
“Obviously, it is his plans, what he wants to do. But we definitely discuss what pace to bowl and what areas to bowl (at nets), and what would be the better shot if it doesn’t go fine. But he is a very clever player, definitely he does think.”
According to Kotak, Abhishek’s strong fundamentals are his greatest assets.
“He does speak to Gautam, he does speak to me and Surya and some other players also. So, he is very open to everything. He is someone who plays a lot of shots. But his shots don’t seem like somebody is slogging. It seems like he is playing more on merit of the ball and has strong basics. So for me, I feel it’s very important when you are an aggressive batsman,” he noted.
The 53-year-old was also thrilled to witness captain Suryakumar end a poor run of form with consecutive fifties.
“For a long time, he has been T20’s best batsman, number one batsman. So, we always knew that he would score runs. But in T20s, somebody scores 60, 70, and we think he played a good inning.
“For us, if somebody scores 25, it may be more important than those 60 runs. So, he, obviously, had some impactful innings in different matches. But consistently, the way he scored runs before, that was something we all were waiting for.
“There will be a dry patch in T20s and you still have to go hard, you still have to play for the team, which is what he did. So glad that he got a good two innings, that’s a good sign for the team anyway.”
