Samson has batted only twice in five innings.
Shubman Gill’s inclusion at the top in T20Is was always going to create issues for Sanju Samson, who was doing exceptionally well as an opener. With Abhishek Sharma locked at one end, India had to demote Samson in the batting order, but his overall usage in the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 has been beyond comprehension.
In the five matches so far, he has batted only twice – once at No.3 and No.5 each – against Oman and Pakistan, respectively. A common theme of this tournament has been a conscious effort to delay Samson’s entry points, which was evident in the fixture against Bangladesh yesterday, where he was slotted as low as No. 8, even below Axar Patel.
Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) speedster Varun Aaron questioned the team management’s decision to keep Samson so low in the order. On ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out, Aaron highlighted three centuries by the batter last year and added that he fails to see any motive behind ample changes in the batting order.
“Sanju Samson is another option; he could have been slotted in early today. We know how he enjoys [batting] slightly up top. Axar ahead of Samson? I do not understand it. The man [Samson] got three T20I centuries last year, you’ve got to cut him some slack.”
Ideally, Sanju Samson should open the innings, but since that spot is not vacant, India should try to keep him as high as possible. That means he must bat somewhere at No.3 or 4 based on the match situation and the opposition’s resources.
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Samson has naturally been a top-order batter whose best comes when he has a few balls to face and can weave a long innings. In the current setup, the issue is that India have a problem of plenty regarding middle-order batters, which means a few must bat out of position.
However, the think tank has messed up the whole lineup instead, with no one, barring openers, getting suitable slots in any of the games. India were reportedly looking to slot Samson in the middle order at No.5 or 6 due to his ability against pace, which was not a bad option, but they have consistently sent the likes of Hardik Pandya and even Axar Patel ahead of him.
At this point, they might be complicating things for themselves by doing too many experiments when the idea should be to find solutions for the T20 World Cup 2026. There’s still time to get their strategy right and assign adequate batting positions to all batters, which can be hard amidst so many options, but not impossible, rather than experimenting in every game.
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