Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has backed Sanju Samson to be Abhishek Sharma’s opening partner for the first T20I against the West Indies. Samson had a quiet run in the Asian Games while batting at one drop, but he scored two consecutive fifties against Afghanistan.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, on the other hand, had opened the innings with Abhishek Sharma in the Asian Games. Sooryavanshi scored a decent knock of 38 runs off 21 balls in the semifinal against Sri Lanka but was dismissed after scoring 15 runs in the final against Pakistan.
Chopra said he would back Samson as he was superb in the T20 World Cup. Samson had scored 321 runs in five matches of the T20I showpiece at a strike rate of almost 200.
Aakash Chopra said on Cricinfo, “I’ll go with Sanju Samson because he won you the World Cup and that should be it. That is where the conversation should end. So, let’s end it there actually. So, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson.”
Chopra also dismissed the idea of playing both Sooryavanshi and Samson in the playing XI as they did in the Asian Games.
“You can’t actually [do that] because if all of them play then you’re running like seriously short on bowlers. Definitely not in a series where you’re expecting a lot of runs to be scored. You need a slightly better bowling department. So no, that is not going to happen.”
The former Delhi cricketer wants the team management to give as much game time as possible to all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy.
“Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer will be three and four. Your five, six, seven, you look at Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube and Axar Patel. Nitish Kumar Reddy will be my pick for No. 8. I want to give Reddy as much game time as possible. Make him bowl, which he did actually against Afghanistan. Quite decent. New ball, old ball. He’s done all of that. This will be a slightly tougher challenge. Different venues.”
India and the West Indies will play the first T20I at Lucknow on Tuesday.
