Out of favour India cricket team star Ajinkya Rahane has opined that Sanju Samson is likely to be left out of the playing XI in Asia Cup 2025. With Shubman Gill returning to T20Is for the first time since July 2024, the Kerala keeper-batter has already lost his role as an opener to the vice-captain. While many experts have backed Samson to bat at number 5 or 6, Rahane feels that the star may have to warm the bench in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Will Samson make it to India’s XI in Asia Cup?
In a video on his YouTube channel, Rahane claimed although he would like to see Sanju in the playing XI, he was mostly going to be left out from the playing XI. The Mumbai batter reckoned that Gill would, in all likeliness, open the innings for India along with Abhishek Sharma. Dubbing Samson as a “team man”, Rahane said that he was a very good problem to have for the Indian team.
“Sanju is a great team man, but that’s a very good problem to have for the team management. In my opinion, probably Sanju Samson will sit out, though as I said, I would like him to play and be in the playing XI. But Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma will open the innings for the team,” Rahane said.
Samson will surely be a headache for captain Suryakumar Yadav and coach Gautam Gambhir in the Asia Cup. After all, it will be hard to leave him out from the playing XI, given his red-hot form over the past year. Playing as an opener in the absence of Gill and Jaiswal, Sanju created history by becoming the only Indian cricketer to slam three centuries in T20Is in the previous calendar year.
Besides, Samson has batted majority of his T20I career as an opener. In T20s, he has amassed most runs while playing at number 3 and even has three hundreds to his name while batting in that slot. It is pertinent to point out that the Kerala keeper-batter hasn’t fared well when put in to bat at number 5 or 6 – both in international and T20 games.
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