Former Indian cricketer Vivek Razdan has backed Sanju Samson as opener for the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan. Samson had scored 321 runs in five matches of the T20 World Cup at a strike rate of almost 200 and thus played a key role in taking India to glory.
The Kerala batter also scored 477 runs in 14 matches for Chennai Super Kings. However, he was dropped from the team on the UK tour after managing three low scores (two innings against Ireland and one against England).
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made his T20I debut against England in the second T20I and Samson was then dropped for three games. Samson returned to the playing XI for the final game but could not get a big score. The flamboyant batter was also rested from the Zimbabwe tour.
However, India has named Samson in the playing XI ahead of Sooryavanshi for the opening T20I against Afghanistan.
“Out of the four prospects we have for the top order, only three can play. Now the difficulty here is that Vaibhav Suryavanshi has become such a big name because of social media and his antics during the IPL, there is always talk about him. In my opinion, we need to show a little patience because we are talking about Sanju Samson here. You cannot touch Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan,” Vivek Razdan said in a select media interaction organised by Sony Sports Network.
The renowned commentator said Samson is an integral part of the team as a right-hander and he has been a proven match-winner.
“Sanju Samson is a player who won India a World Cup a few months back, and was the player of the tournament as well. So this becomes a tricky problem. So logic dictates that you run back to Sanju Samson. If you look at India’s batting unit, you have Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Abhishek Sharma, and Tilak Varma, who are all left-handers. There’s only Shreyas Iyer who is a right-hander in there. Also, Sanju Samson is not a small name that we are discussing here. So, in my opinion, India should look to start the series with Sanju Samson,” he elaborated.
India has decided to bowl first against Afghanistan in the series opener.
