No one really doubts Sanju Samson’s credentials as a T20 batter. But then, there was a lot of debate over his selection in the Asia Cup 2025, with the likes of Jitesh Sharma and Dhruv Jurel doing so well. Cut the the Asia Cup final vs Pakistan. The 30-year-old has not done himself any favours throughout the tournament, especially after a failed innings of 24 in 21 deliveries in the summit clash.
Sanju Samson Losing Magic
After India were reduced to 20/3 in the first four overs, Sanju Samson needed to show his mettle, but failed to lift India out of a tough situation. Playing against Abrar Ahmed, he tried to go for a big one, edged it and was caught at backward point by Sahibzada Farhan. Not that means, he ended the tournament with 128 runs.
Addressing the issue at hand — the number of runs might not really look like a concern, but what purpose is Samson solving here? If hitting/slogging and finishing the matches was his job at No. 5, then he didn’t quite achieve that, the final showed. Then, his strike-rate was also only 124.
T20 World Cup Berth at Stake
So, in short, with this performance he only seems to have put his T20 World Cup spot in jeopardy, with two more potential keepers breathing down his neck. The need of the hour was to not just play sensibly, but also score runs at some pace. Coming back to the Pakistan encounter, with the fall of his wicket at 77, India could have faltered from there on.
The previous over had fetched 7 runs, and perhaps should have looked to go for big shots probably a couple of overs later. His wicket also meant, that only 2 runs were scored in that Abrar Ahmed over.
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