Former Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin showed sympathy for star India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson for being constantly in and out of the playing XI ahead of the second T20I against Afghanistan. Samson starred in India’s memorable T20 World Cup win and won the Player of the Tournament award as well. Yet, after three T20I failures, Samson was left out of the playing XI in favour of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the second T20I in England in July as well. He returned for the final match of the series before being excluded from the squad for the following T20I series in Zimbabwe as well.

Talking about this, R Ashwin said on his YouTube channel, “If you are Samson, won’t you feel that you did brilliantly in the World Cup and then in Ireland, the pitches were like bisi bele bath and all the batters struggled like me. Then he failed one game in England and got dropped. He must be experiencing difficult mental battles and wondering why no one understands his position. His journey hasn’t been easy, considering he started in 2014.”

“When he plays well, people give the feeling of saying, ‘I told you so that time itself’. Yet, when he fails, they’ll say he never plays well and is inconsistent so they put pressure on him. You are never sure if the accusation from people is about Samson failing or about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi sitting out because of him playing. You wonder how it’ll feel to be Sanju Samson,” he again shared.

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Another former Indian all-rounder, Vijay Shankar, urged the team management to play Sanju Samson continuously, citing his performances in the T20 World Cup and IPL earlier this year.

“Sanju Samson or any player, for that matter, you must be given five matches at least in a row. Only then will you get results. This is not magic that in one match you deliver, unless you have good luck written all over you. You can’t play with the thought that I have to score in a given match,” said Shankar.

“Samson had an extraordinary T20 World Cup and did brilliantly in the following IPL also. What else can a player do? He definitely needs to get more continuous opportunities. Once he is a proven player for India, he’s good enough. After that, playing with the fear of having to deliver in one or two matches is very difficult. It’s impossible to play every game with a sword around your neck,” he concluded.