Former Indian Test Aakash Chopra hailed Sanju Samson after his outstanding knock in the third T20I against Bangladesh at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, which the hosts won by a gigantic margin of 133 runs on Saturday.
Samson was able to hit the ground running and completed his fifty off just 22 balls, the fastest for India against Bangladesh in T20Is. Samson’s next fifty came off just 18 balls as he raced to a 40-ball century, which is the second-fastest for an Indian batter.
The flamboyant batter also smashed five sixes in the 10th over against leg-spinner Rishad Hossain. Chopra recalled that current head coach Gautam Gambhir rates Samson very highly and the Indian opener was finally able to grab his chance.
“Let’s talk about Sanju Samson, the phenomenon. Gautam Gambhir had tweeted a few years ago that Sanju Samson is not only India’s best wicketkeeper-batter but the best young batter in the country. Once I was interviewing him (Samson) and I told him that the only motive in his life should be to get Gautam to tweet,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“Gautam used to wait for Sanju to do well for him to tweet. Gautam was a Sanju fan. He may still be a Sanju fan because of the way he batted. Firstly, he hit five sixes in an over. He said his mentor had asked him to do so. It came to my mind why his mentor didn’t talk about six sixes,” Chopra added.
The renowned commentator lauded Samson’s strokeplay and was impressed with Samson’s six against Mustafizur Rahman, which the batter played on the backfoot.
“Anyway, five sixes. He was stepping away and hitting sixes and fours along the ground. You will always see that silken touch in Sanju’s batting. His batting is extremely pleasing to the eye. He hits sixes while standing in his position and hits straight. He hit a six off the backfoot over cover against Mustafizur, and I was like ‘Wow’,” he elaborated.
The former Delhi player added that Samson scoring a hundred in the final T20I is a massive positive for the team.
“Sanju Samson scoring a century is a massive positive. You don’t often get to bat first twice in a three-match series on good pitches with the opposing team not pushing you that much. In such a scenario, if you send the series without scoring runs, the pressure increases, and on Sanju in any case,” he said.
Chopra said Samson gets sporadic chances and thus it was important for him to grab his opportunity in the absence of Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
“His career graph has been like that. He doesn’t get repeated opportunities that easily and in any case, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shubman Gill will come back at some stage. It was an important innings. So well done Sanju Samson,” Chopra observed.
