Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has lavished praise on Sanju Samson after India secured a convincing seven-wicket win against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Tuesday.

Samson got off to a sedate start in his innings, scoring eight runs off the first 10 balls. However, he was able to change gears after getting his eye in, smashing 43 runs off the next 10 deliveries, thus reaching his fifty off only 20 balls. This was Samson’s fastest T20I fifty as he batted at the top of his game.

Chopra said it was a crucial knock for Sanju Samson as he was under immense pressure.

“If you had seen the match and listened to the mid-match conversation, everything was pointing in one direction that there was pressure on Sanju. Sometimes you feel that it’s slightly wrong. Why should the pressure be there if you played three consecutive good knocks in the World Cup quarterfinal, semi-final, and final?” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.

“The pressure was there because two innings had gone bad in Ireland, and one-and-a-half innings had gone bad in England. One was in the washed-out match. So it shouldn’t be counted, but he was dropped after that. He wasn’t sent to Zimbabwe. Vaibhav Suryavanshi kept scoring runs in his absence, and the sword was hanging over his (Samson’s) head,” he added.

Chopra praised the team management for backing Sanju Samson in the first two games ahead of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. 

“The good thing is that he was finally played here. There is no doubt that the future will be extremely bright. Vaibhav Suryavanshi is the kind of player who will light up the future. All of us expect that and have a lot of confidence as well, but why are you compromising the present in the desire for a bright future? We were doing that with Sanju Samson,” he observed.

The third and final T20I between Afghanistan and India will be played at Delhi on Thursday.