Team India is just lucky to have vast resources of white-ball players, who can come in anytime in the side, and be ready to perform under any given situation. Take for instance the IND vs NZ series, where Sanju Samson has been poor throughout, but Ishan Kishan has come up with a couple of noteworthy performances.
Sanju Samson flops again
And that takes the headache away from the team management, despite a quality player being under pressure. With this, perhaps it is time to bench Sanju for now, get in a new opener. The Kerala batter scored 24 from 15, while India were chasing 216, and his departure put extra pressure on the batters to follow.
That just only extends his series of failures, which have continued since 2025. Last year in 15 outings he could only score one fifty, and this year in 4 matches, his highest has been 24 only, where he averages 10. The numbers just don’t seem to improve for now, and with each game, his flaws are becoming even more evident.
Ishan Kishan the viable option for T20 World Cup
To counter the spinners, he seems to be getting to the backfoot, and just gets in no position at all, to be able to defend, or even play a shot. What is quite striking is — throughout his career, he has found it difficult to counter spin. In 2020, he averaged 9.7 against spin, 2021 it was only 7.3, 2023 it was 5.3.
The last two years were quite good — where he averaged 67 and 48 vs spin due to his backfoot adjustment, but his ploy seems to have been exposed. Now, with the T20 World Cup bound to happen in India, and his tricks exposed, and also given the form, it might be only wise, to try out Ishan Kishan at the top for a while.
