Former India player turned coach Abhishek Nayar has said that Sanju Samson is seemingly at his dangerous best form heading into the fifth T20I against the West Indies. He also lauded him for taking the strike against Roston Chase at the start of the Indian innings in the previous T20I as well. However, Samson had smashed a 23-ball 56 in the hosts’ 24-run loss in the previous game in Hyderabad on Wednesday as well.

On the JioHotstar show ‘Game Plan,’ Nayar said, “It was a strategic call at the start, which was very good, where Sanju Samson took strike. After that, the way he was batting, it seemed like he was setting himself up for a big one because he was playing with control. The base was good, the head was steady, and it seemed like the dangerous Sanju was in his rhythm,” he responded.

“Unfortunately, he got out, but he will take this confidence into Bengaluru, and I feel this Indian team will be in a much better position when they come to bat in Bengaluru because a lot of the batters are in form. It’s only a matter of them delivering together,” Nayar shared again.

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However, Abhishek Nayar also shared whether Sanju Samson is valued so highly because of the blazing starts he can give.

“If you bat like this in the Powerplay, you give your team the best start that they require, and that’s what he did, because Abhishek Sharma wasn’t in his greatest of flows, but Sanju Samson took over. Two overs of Roston Chase, like you mentioned, in the Powerplay – he gathered runs there. He put him under pressure there,” he added.

“You get a lot of runs in the Powerplay. The value of that start, even though India didn’t get that result, is invaluable because you could get close. So you want to take that confidence going forward and say that if Sanju can take this for a few more overs, then in the next game India will be sitting pretty in making sure they win the series 3-2,” Abhishek Nayar concluded.