Even a much-awaited homecoming could not save Sanju Samson from the perils of poor form. On Saturday, the Kerala batter slumped to his fifth successive failure in the T20I series against New Zealand in Thiruvananthapuram, much to the disappointment of his fans in his hometown.
Continuing to display his wobbly batting technique, Samson only managed a thick outside edge down to the deep third fielder as he attempted to hoick a six across the line. Falling for six, Samson totalled only 46 runs in five outings, the poorest returns for an Indian opener in a five-match T20I series. Samson went past his own dubious low for India exactly 12 months ago when the repeated short-ball ploy proved to be his undoing against England in five games, where he managed only 51 runs.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra slammed Samson’s shaky batting technique and said that the repetitive dismissal pattern was unusual at the international level.
“I think now this is twice in about 12 months. It all started with that England series. Very rarely do you find a top class batter developing a pattern, especially in the shortest format of the game. He got dismissed five times in the same fashion – short ball caught in the deep. Here also, if you see his dismissals versus pace, there is an eerie pattern to it,” Chopra said in a discussion on ESPNcricinfo.
“You go deep inside the crease even before the ball is bowled. You try and play the ball, but the front foot doesn’t go anywhere. As a result, your bat actually closes every single time you play. He got lucky with an outside edge once in Thiruvananthapuram. In the previous game again, he closed the bat a bit too early, so again a pattern has developed,” remarked Chopra.
Samson finds himself in choppy waters after India’s back-up wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan continued his superb form in the series and capped it off with his maiden century in blazing fashion on Saturday night, powering India to their second-highest T20I score before their World Cup opener in Mumbai in six days.