Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth was not happy with the team’s think tank decision to demote Sanju Samson to number eight in the Super Fours clash against Bangladesh in the ongoing Asia Cup on Wednesday. Samson did not get a chance to bat as even Axar Patel was promoted ahead of him.
Srikkanth reckons it was unfair on Samson not to get a chance to bat. Samson has been told by the management that he would bat at number five in the ongoing Asia Cup but it wasn’t to be the case against the Tigers. The Kerala batter had struggled to get going against Pakistan as he had meandered to 13 runs off 17 balls while batting at number five.
Furthermore, Samson had scored 56 runs off 45 balls against Oman while batting at number three.
Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “He didn’t even bat today. You’ve selected him and told him he’ll bat at 5. Yet if you don’t let him bat, you might as well play Jitesh Sharma as the finisher. This is very unfair for Sanju.”
“But the batting order should be settled. Where they can play around is whether Hardik Pandya bats at 5 or if Sanju Samson can bat at the position. But the top four should be settled at all times. By changing that only it is becoming a problem. Tilak Varma played beautifully in the last game but got out early this time. What happens with so much changing is that the player loses confidence. The player should not lose confidence.”
The former attacking opener said India was right in promoting Hardik Pandya to number five. Pandya scored 38 runs off 29 balls and helped India post 168 runs on the board.
Srikkanth added, “What they want is to give some batting time for everyone. For example, Hardik Pandya was promoted ahead of Tilak Varma because hasn’t got much batting in the Asia Cup. And he batted well today, especially with his offside shots. He was unfortunately run out in the last match. So they did the right thing by batting him at No. 5 to get some game time with the bat for him.”
Meanwhile, Shivam Dube was promoted to one drop but he could not grab his opportunity as he was dismissed after scoring only two runs. Srikkanth said unnecessary chopping and changing of the batting order is not a good sign.
“Shivam Dube at 3, though it was to combat Rishad Hossain, every match chopping and changing the batting order is not a good sign. Though India are playing against several poor sides, it’s still a major tournament. It’s almost better off they don’t play such a tournament and just hand the trophy to Team India. They promoted Axar Patel in the end ahead of Samson. For that, they could have sent Axar Patel at 3. Instead of Dube, you could have sent Axar. Axar has batted at No. 3 in the T20 World Cup itself,” said Srikkanth.
“Even Dube didn’t score in this game and two games prior, so he might lose confidence. Same with Sanju Samson so all our middle-order batters have barely played one innings. So if you have a fixed top four, this problem will not arise. At the moment, the middle order is disorganised.”
India will next take on Sri Lanka at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Friday.
