Sanju Samson makes his opening statement

The ‘keeper-batter struck a sparkling century as India won by 133 runs to sweep the T20I series vs Bangladesh 3-0

New Delhi: It has been a while coming, and in that time the Indian team has tried Sanju Samson in every possible position in the batting order. In his first ever T20I for India in 2015, he came in at No.7 — just below Stuart Binny and just above Axar Patel.

Sanju Samson celebrates his century in the third T20I against Bangladesh, in Hyderabad on Saturday. (PTI)

That was his only innings at No.7 for India but he has shuttled up and down the order in his 33 T20Is — with his 11 innings at No.4 being the most he has batted in one position. Only now, at long last, with Rohit Sharma announcing his retirement from the shortest format will Samson get a chance to make the opening position his own.

The first two games of the series saw him score just 10 and 29 but in Hyderabad he showed a glimpse of the Samson that many fans believe has the potential to be a great batter. He found his timing early and a few boundaries got him going. From that point on, there was no stopping him as his 47-ball 111 (11x4, 8x6) set the tone for India to finish with 297 runs on the board — the second highest ever T20I total.

Bangladesh came to India with a lot of expectations after beating Pakistan in the Test series but they have failed to win a single match in India — losing the Test series 2-0 and the T20I series 3-0.

The ninth over of the Indian innings was standout. The first delivery from Rishad Hossain, the highly-rated Bangladesh leg-spinner, was a dot ball. The next was nonchalantly smashed down the ground for six. One became five as the next four balls too were sent over the boundary line in Samson’s trademark style. Five balls, five sixes and Samson was into the 90s.

The century arrived a little later, off 40 balls, and with it perhaps Samson’s career will get a hint of permanence too. The hitting, as always, was classical but he also got his shot selection right. He kept his shape through most of his shots and, as such, he seems to be made for the opening position. For if he gets going, his combination of grace and power will win India a lot of games.

A particular feature of his batting early on was the manner in which he used his feet to create space for himself and doubt in the bowlers’ mind. And then his wonderful hands came into play.

After his dismissal, Hardik Pandya chipped in with a quickfire 47 off 18 balls as the wheels truly came off a demoralised Bangladesh attack. Riyan Parag, sent up the order, also made 34 off 13 balls to keep the innings moving in the right direction.

In reply, Bangladesh knew that they would need something very special but they lost a wicket off the first ball of the chase when Mayank Yadav dug one short and Parvez Emon was only able to fend it to first slip.

The enormity of the task at hand seemed to overwhelm the visitors as they lost a few early wickets and were then always chasing the game despite fine knocks by Litton Das (42) and Towhid Hridoy (62).

For India, the wickets were shared between Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi and Washington Sundar but all the bowlers really needed to do was keep a tab on the run-rate. They did that and the result became a mere formality.