Chopra emphasized that Samson should only be played if he is given an opening slot.
Ahead of the fourth T20I against England in Bristol, former cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra has strongly disagreed with suggestions that middle-order batter and vice-captain, Tilak Varma, should make way for Sanju Samson in India’s playing XI.
Chopra emphasized that Samson should only be played if he is given an opening slot, as demoting him to No. 5 would be a mistake similar to past handling of KL Rahul.
While Tilak has featured in all three T20Is against England so far, Samson was benched in the last two games to accommodate teenage prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the lineup. Moreover, the wicketkeeper-batter has been left out of the T20I squad for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour.
"Even if you bring in Sanju, if the batting order remains the same, where will you play him? If Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Abhishek Sharma are going to open, Ishan Kishan is going to play at No. 3, you will find Shreyas Iyer at No. 4, and you want to keep Sanju at No. 5 just because you want another right-hander, it's not good enough," Chopra said in a video shared on his YouTube channel.
"What's Sanju's mistake? Firstly, he is the first man who gets dropped, and then he is also the first man to get shunted down the order. Whenever I play Sanju, I won't play him as a middle-order batter. I will vacate an opening slot for him because he plays best there. Treating him like KL Rahul would be wrong," he added.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra highlighted that Tilak is the team’s designated deputy and boasts a fairly impressive record in the middle-order.
"Tilak Varma is our team's vice-captain, and his performance hasn't been bad, even if you see it in the last four games. He gets limited opportunities. The number at which he bats, that batting number is very difficult. In such a scenario, if you have asked him to perform that role, we need to have a bit more patience," Chopra stated.
"I say the least changes should happen from Nos. 5 to 7 because you get few opportunities. You have to run at double the strike rate in high-pressure situations while playing fewer balls. That's not easy. So I don't agree with it at all that you should leave out Tilak Varma and bring in Sanju Samson," he further remarked.
Tilak Varma has registered scores of 19, 55, 13, 24* and 3 in the ongoing UK tour. Before being sidelined from the XI, Sanju samson had aggregated 6 runs in three innings but he was the Player-of-the-Tournament in India’s T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year.
Trailing 0-2 in the five-T20I rubber against England, India face a must-win situation in the penultimate fixture on Thursday (July 9) to keep the series alive.