Sanju Samson made 10 runs in 8 balls in first T20I against Afghanistan.
Indian former all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin has shown empathy towards the key wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson owing to the frequent switching on and off from the playing XI before the start of the second T20I match against Afghanistan.
Samson, a right-handed batter-keeper, had performed very well and had been awarded the Player of the Tournament during India’s triumph in the T20 World Cup.
However, after the losses in three successive T20I matches, Samson was left out of the XI in place of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the second T20I played in England in July. He came back for the last game of the series but was excluded from the squad for the T20I series in Zimbabwe.
Samson was back in the Indian XI for the first T20I against Afghanistan in Delhi but managed only 10 runs in 8 balls.
"If you are Samson, won't you feel that you did brilliantly in the World Cup, and then in Ireland, the pitches were like bisi bele bath, and all the batters struggled like me? Then he failed one game in England and got dropped. He must be experiencing difficult mental battles and wondering why no one understands his position. His journey hasn't been easy, considering he started in 2014.
When he plays well, people give the feeling of saying, 'I told you so that time itself'. Yet, when he fails, they'll say he never plays well and is inconsistent, so they put pressure on him. You are never sure if the accusation from people is about Samson failing or about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi sitting out because of him playing. You wonder how it'll feel to be Sanju Samson,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Samson, who made his India debut in 2015, has played only 67 matches for India in over 11 years.
In the same video, Vijay Shankar urged the India management to keep backing Sanju Samson, given his performance in the T20 World Cup and the IPL in 2026. Samson has scored 43 runs in his last five T20Is, where he has been in and out of the side, averaging under nine.
"Sanju Samson or any player, for that matter, you must be given five matches at least in a row. Only then will you get results. This is not magic that in one match you deliver, unless you have good luck written all over you. You can't play with the thought that I have to score in a given match," said Shankar.
"Samson had an extraordinary T20 World Cup and did brilliantly in the following IPL also. What else can a player do? He definitely needs to get more continuous opportunities. Once he is a proven player for India, he's good enough. After that, playing with the fear of having to deliver in one or two matches is very difficult. It's impossible to play every game with a sword around your neck,” he added.
Though Samson failed, India managed to win the first T20I against Afghanistan by 7 wickets and have taken a lead of 1-0 in the three-match T20I series.