India’s talented batter Sanju Samson played in the first ODI of the series against New Zealand and scored a decent knock of 36 runs after not getting his chances in the T20I series. However, after getting only one opportunity, Samson was dropped from the second game as Deepak Hooda, who can be a sixth bowling option, was included in the final XI.
Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra believes if the team management doesn’t play Sanju Samson, then they will be criticized a lot. Samson has scored 330 runs in 11 ODI matches at an average of 66 and a strike rate of 104.76 and thus there is no doubt that he deserves consistent chances in the final XI. Chopra also wants the team’s think tank to give a chance to Kuldeep Yadav.
Chopra said while talking on YouTube Channel, “Give one match to Kuldeep, play Umran Malik for sure. Play Deepak Hooda also but try to play Sanju Samson as well. If you don’t play Sanju Samson, you will be criticized a lot, be ready for that if you don’t play him.”
“But if you play him (Samson), how will you play Deepak Hooda? If you play him as well, then you won’t be able to play Rishabh Pant. What will you do? You are resting Suryakumar Yadav in the next series, so there is no need to rest him here, in any case this is not a dead rubber, it is all to play for.”
On the other hand, India’s stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan had scored a fine knock of 72 runs in the first game but he was dismissed after scoring only three runs in the second match. The renowned commentator added the expectation will be there from Dhawan to lead from the front.
“Shubman Gill is batting very well and Shikhar Dhawan plays well in any case, he played well in the first match and the expectation from him will be to do well in the third match also.”
Furthermore, Rishabh Pant has been under the scanner as he hasn’t delivered the goods consistently in the white-ball formats. Chopra added Pant should score some runs to keep his critics at bay.
“Rishabh Pant should score runs else there will be a lot of commotion because there is a lot of commotion when he doesn’t score runs. When he scores runs, there is a lot of celebration as well. He covers the journey between commotion and celebration very quickly.”
The third ODI will be played on Wednesday at Christchurch.
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