Sanju Samson was lauded by former India cricketer Abhinav Mukund for his match-winning fifty in the fifth and final T20I between India and Zimbabwe in Harare on Sunday. However, Mukund also termed that sometimes Samson frustrates his fans with his performance.
Samson scored 58 runs off 45 deliveries as India set Zimbabwe a 168-run mark in the last Twenty20 International in Harare on Sunday, July 14. The visitors then bundled Sikandar Raza and his team out for 125, securing a 42-run victory and a 4-1 series lead.
Mukund said that Samson’s experience as captain of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League had helped him mature.
“It’s a tough place to be Sanju Samson in Indian cricket because with all that talent, sometimes he tends to frustrate you, he doesn’t show the maturity. I feel that’s where captaining in the IPL, like he told me earlier, has really helped him because he plays with superstars but he also deals with youngsters as well like Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal,” Mukund said on Sony Sports.
“That’s where you see his maturity as a batter come through. There is immense competition for a wicketkeeper slot in Indian cricket at the moment, and Sanju Samson has just put his hand up today and said ‘Listen, I am still here, so you better not count me out in any of these conversations’,” Mukund added.
India’s 2024 T20 World Cup lineup included two wicketkeepers: Samson and Rishabh Pant. While Pant played every game, Samson was not picked in the XI as a specialist batter.
Sanju Samson brilliantly paced his innings: Tino Mawoyo
On the other hand, former Zimbabwe player Tino Mawoyo agreed with Abhinav Mukund’s assessment of Sanju Samson’s knock and his talent. The former Zimbabwe batter particularly appreciated a couple of sumptuous shots Samson played.
“I liked the word you used to describe his innings today – mature, because I thought that’s what he was. We have seen Sanju Samson, we have seen him try and take on spinners early, sometimes it happens and it works out for him, and sometimes it doesn’t. But today, I thought he was magnificent in how he paced his inning.
He realized that it was important for him at that stage to make sure he batted through the innings and he did that. He played two glorious strokes which he just timed, over extra cover to the spinner and the seamer. When you can play shots like that in T20 cricket, things are going very well for you because a lot of it is wanting to force the ball. He played some really good shots today,” Mawoyo observed.
After India was reduced to 40/3, Samson and Riyan Parag combined for 65 runs (22 off 24). The 58-run hit was his second half-century in 24 T20I innings, and he hopes to improve his consistency going ahead.
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