Former opening batsman Wasim Jaffer feels that Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson hasn’t done ‘justice to his talent’ in Indian colors.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Jaffer observed that there’s a tag of inconsistency attached to Sanju Samson which he needs to let go of as soon as possible. He said that the 26-year-old needs to bring a similar sense of responsibility to the Indian team as he showed in the first half of IPL 2021.
“Sanju Samson is another player I am looking forward to. I want him to do well. He’s an exciting player but somewhere I feel he hasn’t done justice to his talent for the Indian team. He’s obviously got runs in the IPL but somewhere I feel there’s a tag attached to him which says he hasn’t been consistent. He gets runs and then you’ll see three or four low scores and then after a while, he scores runs. I feel we need to see him rectify that,” said Jaffer.
“I saw that change in him this season when he was captain for the Rajasthan Royals and he batted very responsibly in a couple of games. You know, that’s what we need to see him do because he’s an outstanding talent,” he added.
Sanju Samson has played seven T20Is in his stop-start career, with his debut having come back in 2015.
Samson has often been picked for the national team on the back of strong domestic and IPL performances, but has failed to replicate the same at the highest level. So far, he has 83 T20I runs to his name at a strike rate of 118.57, starkly different from his IPL numbers – 2861 runs at 134.83.
Sri Lanka series a brilliant opportunity for Sanju Samson
Nevertheless, the upcoming six limited-overs matches against a struggling Sri Lankan team is a golden opportunity for Sanju Samson to present his case for the T20 World Cup. Although India has a glut of top-order options already available, a good series here can help the Kerala batter sneak into the middle order. He is coming off a brilliant IPL 2021 – 277 runs from seven innings at a strike rate of over 145 – and will look to continue his purple patch in the island nation.