Former Indian player Subramaniam Badrinath asked the management to give Sanju Samson a long run in T20Is till the end of the year amid the ongoing series against Afghanistan. Despite his heroics in the 2026 T20 World Cup, Samson was dropped after a hat-trick of low scores in the T20I series in Ireland and England as well. However, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who replaced Samson, also failed in his first three T20I innings in the England series and eventually Samson returned to
the side for the series finale before missing out again in the following T20I series in Zimbabwe as well.

Talking about Samson’s place in India’s T20I XI, Badrinath said on his YouTube channel, Cric it with Badri, “Samson has performed well and is coming off a half-century. I feel he should get an extended run till the end of the year. He has scored two centuries and won India the World Cup. Though he hasn’t delivered extraordinary performances like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, he was already there in the line. So why do you have to drop him to bring in another youngster? Give Sanju an extended run and then decide.”

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“Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson should open in the next 10 T20Is after this series. After that, if Sanju Samson fails, drop him and pick Sooryavanshi. They should follow this process instead of alternating between the two from one series to the next. I feel this has been unfair to Samson,” he again shared.

Subramaniam Badrinath also said that the axe falls faster on Sanju Samson than on the other Indian players. He has played only 68 T20Is for India despite debuting in the format way back in 2015 as well.

“Yes, Sanju is not the most consistent. But that’s his nature as a cricketer. The difference between Sanju and others is that Sanju gets dropped faster if he just fails in two or three innings. However, other players get five to six chances,” concluded S Badrinath.