Robin Uthappa opens up on Sanju Samson’s position in T20Is amid IND vs SA series

Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa believes Sanju Samson might consider himself unlucky after he has been dropped from the T20I team. Samson has struggled to find regular chances after Shubman Gill has been appointed as the team’s vice-captain.

Samson didn’t get a chance in the final XI in the opening T20I against South Africa. Furthermore, the wicket-keeper bat was dropped in the last couple of matches against Australia as Jitesh Sharma was preferred ahead of him. Samson did get his chance in the middle order but came up with ordinary performances.

The flamboyant batter had scored three centuries as an opener and thus many experts felt he was a bit unlucky to be demoted in the batting order.

Robin Uthappa said on his YouTube Channel, “Surya said Gill opened the batting before Sanju Samson got the opportunity to open. But once you have him the opportunity, he has got three hundreds in that and has done really well. He’s averaging the second or third highest after Abhishek Sharma. He must be thinking what wrong have I done to not find a spot? Is that communication alive with Sanju Samson, where they’ve said, ‘We are going to try Shubman out for a few games, if it doesn’t work out, you jump straight back in’.”

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill has not grabbed his opportunity with both hands as he has not even scored a fifty in the last 13 matches. Uthappa noted that Gill is not batting according to his strengths.

“He’s batting completely opposite to what actually works for him and what actually gives him success. He’s the kind of T20 batter who gets in a little bit. He’s not a Sanju Samson or Abhishek Sharma type of opening batter. He’s the kind of guy who gets in, and once he gets in, you can’t get him out,” said Uthappa.

“But he has to go through that passage of batting those first ten balls and scoring a run-a-ball or striking at 120 and up the ante after that. Because once he bats those first 15-18 balls, it’s almost impossible to get Shubman Gill out. So he’s doing something that’s counterintuitive to his batting right now,” he added.

The second T20I between India and South Africa will be played at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh, on Thursday.