The T20I series against the West Indies might have been another audition for a few players to make their case for India’s squad for the Asia Cup 2023 as KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer still battle fitness and time.
While Suryakumar Yadav rocked back to form with back-to-back half-centuries in consecutive innings, one of the other contenders, Sanju Samson, failed to impress yet again.
Sanju Samson managed just 13 runs in the 5th T20I against the West Indies in Florida as walls continue to get closer on the Rajasthan Royals skipper’s position in Team India.
Samson finished the T20I series against the West Indies with scores of 12, 7, and 13, further decreasing his average in the shortest format.
After 19 T20I innings now, Sanju Samson averages only 18.5
These are really poor numbers for a batsman of Samson’s class, talent, quality, and experience of facing world-class bowlers in the IPL.
To put Sanju Samson’s T20I career so far in context, he has the third-worst average for an Indian batsman in T20I who has played minimum of 15 innings in the format.
Lowest T20I batting average for India men (min: 15 inns)
8.37 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar
18.15 – Yusuf Pathan
18.50 – Sanju Samson
Sanju Samson’s fans have often hounded the Indian team managements and the BCCI selectors on social media for not providing the Kerala star with enough opportunities. In this series, he got three chances against one of the below-ranked teams, and he failed to make an impact while the likes of Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav made most of their chances in the T20I series.
This inevitably led to a spate of trolling and criticism of Sanju Samson on Twitter:
Sanju Samson ke bare mein baat karte Shashi tharoor aur John pic.twitter.com/CZtd4HExK0
— Raja Babu (@GaurangBhardwa1) August 13, 2023
https://twitter.com/anubhav__tweets/status/1690754833572392960?s=20
Why Sanju Samson missed out
*Born in Kerala
*Doesn't play for a big ipl team
*No tattoos
*Not close to Captain
*No PR Just RR pic.twitter.com/JziOHS90HM— Pushkar (@musafir_hu_yar) August 13, 2023
Thank you Sanju Samson ❤️ pic.twitter.com/2jD35384kB
— Dennis❤️ (@DenissForReal) August 13, 2023
Samson in T20I
19, 6, 8, 2, 23, 15, 10, 27, 7, 0, 39, 18, 77, 30*, 15, 5, 12, 7, 13
Only 1 50 against mighty IrelandAverage : 18.50 pic.twitter.com/lPZhAEsHmV
— . (@finehaihum) August 13, 2023
Thankyou sanju samson 🙏 pic.twitter.com/SOFhyRWGNr
— Arun Singh (@ArunTuThikHoGya) August 13, 2023
Anna Sanju samson deserves one chance 😍👈🏼 pic.twitter.com/VChmIrKER6
— Dennis❤️ (@DenissForReal) August 13, 2023
India tour of West Indies: An opportunity missed by Sanju Samson. #INDvsWI
— Manoj Dimri (@manoj_dimri) August 13, 2023
Samson after 5 balls at crease pic.twitter.com/0Vi7LM93o7
— Pricviz (@Pric_viz_) August 13, 2023
Samson hasn't always gotten consistent run and has been at wrong end of some unfair chop and change but man doesn't really help himself.#WIvIND #CricketTwitter
— Akash (@Akashkumarjha14) August 13, 2023
Sanju Samson has to be dropped now. Enough of mediocrity. He is a failure at international level and never made any use of the opportunities presented to him. He will never learn and BCCI should drop him for good. Pretty certain there are more talented players than him in India!
— Troll cricket unlimitedd (@TUnlimitedd) August 13, 2023
Meanwhile, SKY’s brilliant half-century – off 38 balls, which was his slowest fifty in T20Is, further highlighting that it wasn’t easy to bat on this pitch today – helped India to a total of 165/9. The series is levelled 2-2 and this is the decider game.
