Kapil Dev opines on Sanju Samson's inconsistent career

Former Indian World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has expressed his concerns over the inconsistency of Sanju Samson, who recently led Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Indian Premier League. However, Samson has scored 458 runs in the IPL 2022 season, but he couldn't convert all of those into big scores.

Kapil Dev believes that it is the wicketkeeper's inconsistency with the bat that's hurting him the most while getting a place in the current Indian squad. He feels Samson is not short of talent, but he needs to work on getting the big scores and not throwing away his wickets in between.

While speaking on 'Uncut', Kapil Dev also opened up on the other wicketkeepers that India already have now - Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, and Dinesh Karthik.

He said: "I am disappointed with Sanju Samson. He is so talented. He does well in one or two matches, and then he does not do anything. If you talk about wicketkeepers, they're all almost the same. But if you talk about being the better batter, on a given day, all four can win you matches."

Dev also opined on another Indian wicketkeeper, Wriddhiman Saha. He shared, "If you talk about Wriddhiman Saha, he is a better wicketkeeper than these four. But these four, as a batsman, are better."

However, Team India have three wicketkeeping options as of now for the T20 World Cup in Australia in their current T20I squad - Pant, Kishan and Karthik. Kapil Dev also stated that out of the three, the Tamil Nadu batter is miles ahead when it comes to scoring consistently in recent times.

While praising Karthik for his stunning comeback to the Indian team, Kapil Dev added: "I don't think Dinesh Karthik has surpassed Rishabh Pant in T20s. But this time, he has done so well that he forced selectors to not ignore him. Pant is a youngster who has lot of cricket left, then there is Karthik, who has loads of experience. The more said about Karthik the less. He started before [MS] Dhoni and is still continuing."

He also felt that Ishan Kishan felt the pressure of the price tag in the IPL 2022 season, which also cost him his game.

Dev stated: "If we talk about consistency currently, Dinesh Karthik is ahead of all. Ishan Kishan has, I think, come under pressure. Maybe it's the pressure of the high price that he garnered at the IPL auction. I have never got so much money, so I will not be able to say."

However, if India chose to go with just two wicketkeeping options for the mega-event, it will be interesting to see who they drop from the above options.