Sanju Samson is the name we have been hearing for so long and for all the right reasons. The Rajasthan Royals skipper has always got the backing of the fans all around the world, that he always doesn’t get a long run in the Indian team and he should be the part of playing 11, more often than not.
But the story of Sanju Samson in Indian colors have been bittersweet, more bitter than sweet if we analyze.
In 19 innings of T20I, he has a highest score of 77 which he made against Ireland, and total of 333 runs at an average of 18.5.
Now when we talk about a good player, its always about the probabilities.
If a player is good, give him 5 matches, he will definitely will click in one of the matches to score big, give him 10, he will click in atleast 2-3 matches and give him 20 matches and if he is that good that the whole world is talking about playing him, he should be clicking in atleast 3-4 matches so far with impactful innings, but sadly, that has not been the case with Sanju Samson.
In ODI, his number are little better with 390 runs in 12 innings with an average of 55. So what’s the missing piece of puzzle in this talented wicketkeeper from Kerala.
Sanju Samson debuted in IPL in 2013 and for India in T20I in 2015. Its been 8 years and India have played 150 T20I from 2015.
Sanju Samson debuted against Zimbabwe in 2015 and score 19 of 24 balls, batting at no 6 position and it was perfect platform for him to gain all the limelights as team India was chasing 145 runs and eventually fall short of 10 runs.
Now after this Sanju Samson has to wait big 5 years to get into the team again and this time he played 3 T20I matches in a span of 1 month.
He got to bat at the number 3 position and also at opening slot in two of the matches, but it looked like he was playing the match like a 5 over game, dismissed in single digits in all three matches, that’s 3 failure in 1 month when you have got your chance after 5 years. Where is the mental toughness? What’s the game plan? Just come and swing blind, its 120 balls of cricket remaining, and you are playing in as a opener, atleast play 30 balls, make 50 runs but Sanju Samson wasted all three opportunites,the best he can.
Then he again played 3 T20I matches in a span of three days against Australia and played aggresively again with a good impactful innings of 23 runs in 15 balls with a four and a six in one of the T20Is.
After that he played another 6 T20I when India sent a B team to Srilanka and then 3 matches at home against Srilanka but didn’t made much impact other than a 39 runs innings.
After that a 77 against Ireland when Hooda got a hundred, and now in 5 matches against WestIndies, with one run out, all the chances were wasted to best, with single digit scores.
If we look at the journey, it looks really patchy and everyone was thinking may be WestIndies series w will be the series when Sanju Samson will justify all the talks justifying his place in the playing 11.
There is Ishan Kishan competing and now there are 2 more batters making in roads in the form of Tilak Varma and Yashahvi Jaiswal in the T20I format, it will be very difficult for Samson to get into the playing 11 again.
But is there anything wrong in his technique too, other than the mental toughness and planning his innings?
The way he bats looks very good on the eyes, but there is a flaw.
It is his strength and also is the reason for his dismissal. He always looks to play a lot aerial, the body weight is always above the waist.
If you see Virat Kohli, what makes him consistent is he plays most of the balls on the ground, that’s why he is so successful, the body weight is always closer to the ball, he will lean when he will drive, in all the shots he plays, he is not just standing tall, rather he leans on the shot, making the ball goes along the ground or gives him more control on placing the balls, but when it comes to Sanju Samson he likes to stand very straight and then play his shots.
With this technique, the shots when comes looks all good to the eyes, but because he remains so straight and body doesn’t lean that much, there is more chance of ball going in the air.
In the ODI against Srilanka, where he made 46 runs on debut he played a upphish inside out shot and got caught at short cover, intead he could have played along the ground and get to his 50.
A 50 in the debut ODI match would have certainly looked better than 46 and getting out playing a high risk shot.
Also, the more thing is the commitment to the shots. Looks like he is always commited to the shots and fails in re-adjusting when the bowler reads him into what he is going to do.
We must have all seen the Misbah Ul Haq video where he was going to play sweep and then instead played in the slips as the ball was just not there to play sweep.
This adjusting your shots and playing the shots as late as possible, it may not look good on the eyes like K L Rahul or Sanju Samson himself, but Dhoni was also not good on the eyes. Batting technique and cover drives are all overrated, instead the whole purpose is to make runs no matter how ugly you look, or you cant play those juicy pickup shots or cover drive.
Play ugly, but make runs and looks to play long should be the goal of future batsman rather than looking good playing cover drive or pull shot or anyshot and that is one area he can look into.
He can continue playing his cricket shots but he can keep his body weight a little lower to give him more control on finding the gaps and keeping the ball along the ground and a little less commitments to the shot can do wonders for him
Well, he is a international player with over 150 IPL matches and now is the skipper of Rajasthan Royals after playing his first IPL match in 2013, but with 10 years of IPL behind him, the learnings and progress simply doesn’t justify his 10 years of IPL experience.
He is a great stroke maker but playing the ball along the ground and less of aerial shots will certainly do him wonders.
