The former India opener Abhinav Mukund has applauded Sanju Samson for scoring a brilliant fifty in the fifth T20I between India and Zimbabwe. He again added that the Kerala wicketkeeper-batter hasn’t made the most of his chances at times. Samson also scored 58 runs off 45 balls as India set  Zimbabwe a 168-run target in the final T20I in Harare on Sunday, July 14. India then bundled Sikandar Raza and company out for 125 to register a 42-run win and complete a 4-1 series win as well.

Reviewing the game on Sony Sports, Mukund said, “It’s a tough place to be Sanju Samson in Indian cricket because with all that talent, sometimes he tends to frustrate you, he doesn’t show the maturity. I feel that’s where captaining in the IPL, like he told me earlier, has really helped him because he plays with superstars but he also deals with youngsters as well like Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal.”

“That’s where you see his maturity as a batter come through. There is immense competition for a wicketkeeper slot in Indian cricket at the moment, and Sanju Samson has just put his hand up today and said ‘Listen, I am still here, so you better not count me out in any of these conversations’,” Mukund again said.

However, he also added that Samson has staked his claim for the wicketkeeper-batter’s position in India’s T20I team as well. Samson and Rishabh Pant were the two wicketkeepers in India’s 2024 T20 World Cup squad but Pant played all the games and Samson didn’t get  a chance as well.

“I liked the word you used to describe his innings today – mature, because I thought that’s what he was. We have seen Sanju Samson, we have seen him try and take on spinners early, sometimes it happens and it works out for him, and sometimes it doesn’t. But today, I thought he was magnificent in how he paced his innings,” he concluded.