Former cricketer Vivek Razdan has urged the Indian team management to play Sanju Samson at the top of the order in the playing XI for the upcoming T20I series against Afghanistan. Samson was dropped for the Zimbabwe tour, but found himself back in the mix for the three-match series, scheduled to begin on Sunday, September 13, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
“Out of the four prospects we have for the top order, only three can play. Now the difficulty here is that Vaibhav Suryavanshi has become such a big name because of social media and his antics during the IPL, there is always talk about him. In my opinion, we need to show a little patience because we are talking about Sanju Samson here. You cannot touch Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan,” Vivek Razdan said in a select media interaction organised by Sony Sports Network.
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“Sanju Samson is a player who won India a World Cup a few months back, and was the player of the tournament as well. So this becomes a tricky problem. So logic dictates that you run back to Sanju Samson. If you look at India’s batting unit, you have Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Abhishek Sharma, and Tilak Varma, who are all left-handers. There’s only Shreyas Iyer who is a right-hander in there. Also, Sanju Samson is not a small name that we are discussing here. So, in my opinion, India should look to start the series with Sanju Samson,” he shared.
Meanwhile, Vaibhav Suryavanshi failed to do well in his first-ever tour in Indian colours, scoring 42 runs in three games. However, he won the player of the series in Zimbabwe and scored two fifties in the process.
“You cannot escape from exposing him to the world because it has already happened through the IPL. So, it is not as if we are rushing him. He has proven that he belongs at the top level, he is a wonder. At this time, how you handle him is extremely important. The first test was to expose him to international cricket; we have done that. Now the next aspect is to be patient. There is no rush to catch a departing vehicle or anything. If we have no other destructive batters like him, then I can understand; but we have players like Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. So, such impatience is not good,” Vivek Razdan said of Vaibhav Suryavanshi as well.
