IND v WI 2019: Sanju Samson open to keeping wickets, gives team the priority

Sanju Samson has replaced injured Shikhar Dhawan for West Indies T20I series.

Sanju Samson | GettySanju Samson’s late inclusion in the Indian team for the upcoming T20I series against West Indies has made lots of his fans happy on social media, given that he was not picked initially and was dropped without given any chances against Bangladesh.

Samson has received praise from the likes of Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir for his enormous talent and his exploits in the domestic scene and for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL lately have made him quite popular amongst the masses.

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With Rishabh Pant not exactly setting the world on fire with his bat or gloves in limited-overs cricket, Sanju Samson has said that he is ready to don the gloves if given a chance to play for India. "I have been keeping wickets in white-ball cricket for Kerala for the last five or six years and have also kept in the Ranji Trophy format. I keep that as an open thing. Whatever my team requires, I do it accordingly. In the IPL, whenever my team wanted me to keep I did. But they at the time felt I could contribute more on the field, so I did that. I prepare for myself both as a keeper and fielder because you never know what the team is looking at,” he said.  

When asked about whether he doesn’t like to keep wickets, Sanju said, "Absolutely not. It is not true. I can't explain every time to everyone what is happening in the team management. I am a keeper and when my team wants me to keep, I do that and when they ask me to field, I do that. I can't tell the team what I want to do right? The team is the priority.”Sanju Samson will hope to getting a chance against West Indies | IANSThe Kerala player will replace Shikhar Dhawan in the team, who has suffered a knee injury. "I have never thought of that (consistency) as an issue. What I have understood is that I am a bit different type of player where I just feel that I should go and dominate the bowlers. So, when I have a style and I am looking to dominate the bowlers, it can happen…if I go behind consistency, I will lose my style of batting. I don't want to change my style of playing to bring in consistency,” Samson said.

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"I like to keep things as simple as possible and when I get the opportunity, I look to score big. If I get five innings, I want to score big in one or two innings and win matches for my team. Consistency in my innings won't win matches for my team. It is more important to play outstanding innings to win my team games. I go behind that kind of idea," he explained.

Samson further says that he is excited to sit and talk about his game with coach Shastri and captain Kohli. He also talked about his goal of winning the T20 World Cup in Australia. "The dream is to win the World T20 for India in Australia. I am training for that, not to be a part of the team. I want to win the World Cup for my country and that is the standard I set for myself and that is how I plan my work ethics. Definitely the dream is to win the trophy as it has been a while since we won one and I would definitely want to have some quality contributions in the process. That is the dream and I am working towards it," he signed off.

(IANS inputs)

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 27 Nov, 2019

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