The peculiar Gautam Gambhir-approach that pushes Sanju Samson’s senior career in jeopardy

Sanju Samson (Source: AFP) 

After the T20I retirement of the former skipper and the veteran opener, Rohit Sharma, India started investing in the wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson for the opening spot, alongside young left-hander Abhishek Sharma. 

The duo’s left-right combination would be perfect if it would have been trusted for a long period of time instead of using this pair in just 12 T20I innings. In the short-lived tenure of their partnership, Sharma-Samson duo produced some quick and fiery opening stands. 

Besides that, playing as an opener to fill the ‘Rohit Sharma void’, Samson performed exceptionally well and delivered some sensational performances against South Africa in South Africa last year. But, the in-form batter has been ignored for a long time by the current Indian team management. 

That said, here’s a look at the factors which reflect how the Gautam Gambhir-approach has pushed Samson’s career in jeopardy, owing to continuous omissions. 

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The numbers staunchly advocate for Samson’s place in T20Is 

Sanju Samson brilliantly filled himself in the big shoes of Rohit Sharma after the latter’s T20I retirement. Replacing Rohit in the opening slot, Samson delivered some outstanding performance since last year. 

Sanju Samson as opener in T20Is since T20 World Cup 2024

The Kerala batter has smashed 417 runs in 13 innings while opening the innings either at number one or two. He has scored these runs with an amazing average of 34.8, hitting three centuries. Out of these three centuries as an opener, he has scored two centuries against South Africa in Africa.  

His performances in South Africa against the hosts also attracted a lot of eyeballs and earned a lot of praise as his knocks helped India post the massive totals on the board in the shortest format of the game. 

But the Gambhir-led management’s ‘out of the box’ decision forced a talented batter to sit on bench and watch his chances going away from him.

Jitesh Sharma as WK and Shubman Gill as opener block Samson’s way

Indian think tank going ahead with Jitesh Sharma as a wicketkeeping option in the T20Is is something which also reduces Samson’s chances as a WK-batter.However, Jitesh hasn’t performed better than Samson as a batter in the T20Is. 

Jitesh Sharma in T20Is since T20 World Cup 2024 

In the same time period since T20 World Cup 2024, Jitesh has batted in four innings, scoring just 62 runs in four innings, with the highest individual score of just 27 runs. He also has a low strike rate and batting average compared to that of Samson’s. 

Picking Jitesh Sharma as wicketkeeper-batter and placing him in middle-order, alongside putting out-of-form Shubman Gill in the opening, are the two things that block the way for Samson. These two decisions push the possibilities to the walls for the Kerala batter, both as an opener and wicketkeeper-batter. 

Shubman Gill as opener in T20Is in T20 World Cup 2024

However, Samson’s opening replacement in Shubman Gill hasn’t lived up to the expectations, scoring 514 runs in 21 innings with an average of just 28.6 and a strike rate of just 131.5. He has smashed just nine sixes in 21 innings, compared to Samson’s 30 sixes in just 13 innings. 

Conclusion: Time to come out of ‘all-rounder’ obsession

Apart from the Jitesh and Gill moves in wicketkeeping and opening, another approach of the management that has seriously impacted the possibilities for Samson in the T20Is, is the ‘obsession with all-rounder’. Gautam Gambhir’s stubbornness to play with more number of all-rounders is something that has made it very hard for players like Samson to secure a spot in the XI. 

Concluding the discussion, the major point to be noticed is that T20I is the only format which Samson plays. On top of that, it seems to be very hard for him to make a comeback and compete among the youngsters as he is already 31 and time is running out now. 

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