India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has admitted that there will be a discussion regarding Sanju Samson’s selection after Abhishek Sharma continued his poor form in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. After bagging three consecutive ducks in the group stage, Sharma was dismissed after scoring 15 runs off just 12 balls against South Africa at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Samson was not in good form in the five-match series against New Zealand as he could only manage 46 runs at an average of 9.20. Thus, in his place, Ishan Kishan opened the innings for India. Samson got his chance when Abhishek was ruled out with a stomach infection and the right-hander scored a cameo of 8-ball 22 against Namibia in Delhi.
Ryan ten Doeschate said in the post-match press conference, “Sanju is a fantastic player and obviously helps tactically with having a right-hander at the top of the order. I’m sure that will be a talking point over the next few days going into these two very important games.”
Speaking on India’s batting woes at the top, ten Doeschate said, “I look in the five outings we’ve had now. Four teams have opened with part-time off-spin and it’s got to wicked every time, apart from the USA game where we lost Abhi [Abhishek] without scoring in any case. To start every inning zero for one or a couple of runs for one every time is obviously putting pressure on the link players – Tilak and Surya. Their role is to link up with the guys at the back end and it hasn’t gone that way.”
On the other hand, the former Dutch batter praised South African fast bowlers for bowling the accurate length at Ahmedabad.
He concluded, “I think they just held length really well. Obviously, Lungi’s the point of difference there with the slower balls, really full. We’ve spent so much time this week on sort of planning for that. And credit to him, despite all the planning, he was very difficult to execute against. I thought the three seamers held their lengths really well and didn’t allow us to free our arms. And that was probably the difference today between the two teams.”
India will next take on Zimbabwe at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, on Thursday.
