Sanju Samson (PTI photo)
As far as rubber stamping their places go, this was Samson’s attempt – with 52 of his 57 runs coming in boundaries. In a game of musical chairs that he’s been involved in with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Samson has, arguably, had the raw end of the deal. And here he was, suggesting once again that he wasn’t going away easily. On the back of a stellar T20 World Cup, playing a huge role in India winning the trophy, he was benched unceremoniously after a poor showing against Ireland. In came Sooryavanshi, who didn’t hit the ground running on his inauguration to the international stage. “I try to shut out the noise, try to be confident and come out and still keep scoring at a high strike rate, even taking the chances, even knowing that if I fail again, I will be facing a lot of noise. But I think that’s the way we are built here in Indian cricket. I just go out there and try to score maximum and contribute,” he continued.
Being an Indian cricketer, it’s not easy to face failures, but that’s where my experience comes in,” he said in the post-match press conference. All of them (himself, Sooryavanshi and Abhishek Sharma) are really good, all of them are performing, and all of them have to be given the right opportunity to keep performing at the international level,” said Samson. Samson then returned for the last two T20I against England before missing the flight to Zimbabwe. There, Sooryavanshi who went hammer and tongs and emerged as the Player of the Match. An overpitched start to the fifth over by Omarzai was sent over the mid-on fielder. Next ball, short and spraying down leg side, he sent it over the fine leg region. The one after that was pitched up and again met the treatment: slashed over the cover, one bounce and it went into the hands of the volunteers. To end the over, Samson converted a low full toss with the full face of his bat, knocked over the stumps at the non-striker’s end and yet beat the fielder for a four! “It’s about just watching the ball and trying to get maximum out in the powerplay. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes it doesn’t. After a few failures, you definitely go through a lot. “It’s a very challenging place to be in. Right from the whole team management, the captain, coach and selectors. It’s a very tough choice, actually. “I think they are competitors for the outside world, but we are a team and we are playing for a country. We want to win the game first, and then it comes down to the other individuals.
