It’s all black and white, nothing grey, when it comes to Sanju Samson‘s performance for India. His T20I career is a car that one can drive either in first or fifth gear. It stems from his failure to start well. Samson is jittery to begin. That’s why he registers a plethora of single-digit scores.
Once his nerves calm down, the ball stops moving around just a touch, and he gets a few on his bat, everything goes well. The issue for Samson is that he hasn’t been consistently reaching that stage. But it isn’t just about nerves. The 31-year-old has some technical deficiencies as well.
Sanju Samson’s off-side issue
In two of his last three dismissals, Samson has been dismissed while looking to dash the ball through the off-side. Against Ireland’s Jai Moondra, he edged the ball back to his stumps. The delivery was around the 6th or 7th stump. Against England’s Saqib Mahmood, the delivery was around the 6th stump.
In Durham, Samson had already shuffled to his left. Therefore, he had extra room. But his bat face closed up more than he would’ve wanted, and the ball went into the hands of Tom Banton at backward point. In Irfan Pathan’s estimation, this wasn’t just an unlucky dismissal but a clear pattern.
The former Indian all-rounder believes lines outside keep Samson tied. He tries to force the ball, and his bat face closes up in the process. That’s why he’s susceptible to being caught behind and the ball going behind the square. Pathan believes England knew this well, and Saqib kept on bowling outside off to him before he finally departed.
“You want to take the ball away from Sanju Samson. Even if you don’t take the ball away, you want to keep the line outside the off-stump because his bat face remains closed. When his bat face is closed, and he tries to play on the off-side, the bat face opens up at times.
That’s why we have seen him getting out in the slips, caught behind, and behind square many times. The thought process was to get him out with that plan. The field was changed, the bowler bowled that line, and a slightly shorter length was bowled, where the ball was stopping a little, and Sanju got out there,” Pathan said on JioHotstar.
