Last week’s Asia Cup squad announcement in Mumbai left many experts and fans feeling sorry for Sanju Samson. He made the 15-member team but might not play any matches.
Shubman Gill’s return to the T20I team as vice-captain means Samson might lose his opening spot. He has spent the last year establishing himself as the opener for India in T20s, even hitting three centuries in his last 10 innings.
Of course, Samson could move down to No. 6 but he hasn’t played the finisher role in T20s much and India already has Jitesh Sharma as a specialist there.
But Samson isn’t giving up. With no warm-up games for India before the Asia Cup, he’s using the Kerala Cricket League to get ready. He scored 223 runs in three innings. He started at No. 6 for the Kochi Blue Tigers but that didn’t work out. Back in his usual opening spot, he scored 121 and 89 in the next two matches which put pressure on Gill and the team management before the Asia Cup.
Fresh from that 121 off 51 on Sunday, Samson continued his good form on Tuesday against the Thrissur Titans. He opened the batting and scored 89 off 46, 4 fours and 9 sixes, at a strike rate of 193.48. He even scored 13 runs off one ball.
How is that possible? In the fifth over, bowled by Sijomon Joseph, the spinner overstepped on the fourth ball. Samson hit it over extra cover for a six. The next ball was a free hit and Samson hit it into the stands again. Because of that Samson’s team scored 13 runs off one ball.
Samson reached his half-century off 26 balls and maintained a strike rate of over 200 for most of his innings until it slowed down towards the end. Samson was out to Ajinas K in the 18th over but his hitting helped his team reach 188/7 in 20 overs. In the first two matches of KCL 2025, Sanju Samson batted in the middle order which led to speculations that he has been told about a new role for the Asia Cup. He didn’t bat in the first match and scored 13 off 22 in the second. But he opened on Sunday and scored 121 and won the match for his team.
