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Sunil Gavaskar not happy with Sanju Samson after he throws his wicket in 1st T20I vs Sri Lanka, drops catch later
Sanju Samson endured an off day with the bat, and a mixed outing on the field during India's series opener against Sri Lanka at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. Samson fell cheaply and dropped a catch which did not impress former India captain Sunil Gavaskar.
Sanju Samson endured an off day with the bat, and a mixed outing on the field during India's series opener against Sri Lanka at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. Samson fell cheaply and dropped a catch which did not impress former India captain Sunil Gavaskar. Throughout his career, the one narrative that has gone hand-in-hand with Samson is how time and again, he fails to justify the insurmountable amount of talent which he possesses, with Gavaskar pointing out exactly that.
Samson had faced just 5 balls when he went for a slog, mistimed the shot off Dhananjaya de Silva and was out caught after scoring 5. What makes the dismissal even more frustrating was the fact that on the previous delivery, Samson had received a lifeline after the fielder grassed an opportunity in the deep. But instead of playing himself in against the threatening Sri Lankan attack, Samson continued his approach and perished, which led to Gavaskar questioning the 28-year-old India batter.
"And this time, it's the leading edge going to short third man. He is such a fine player. Sanju Samson has so much of talent but his shot selection sometimes lets him down. And this is one more occasion where it has disappointed," Gavaskar said on air.
The evening got worse for Samson. With Ishan Kishan keeping wicket, Samson in the outfield made erred on a couple of instances. The first lapse was as early as the opening over of the Sri Lankan innings bowled by Hardik Pandya. The India captain started with the new ball and immediately generated threatening swing that floored Pathum Nissanka. Second ball of the over, Nissanka top edged Hardik for what appeared to be an easy catch but Samson at mid-off made a mess of it. Samson dived across, got his hands underneath, even pouched the ball but upon landing, spilled it. Was the dive necessary? Well, Samson surely thought so.
He revived himself later in the innings with sharp catches to dismiss Kusal Mendis and de Silva – the catch to send back Mendis was worth lauding as the ball was travelling – but ended the night with a sight to forget. Samson came running in from third man to stop the ball but it went through him. Although it wasn't entirely Samson's fault, his knee got stuck into the ground, it resulted in a boundary and the bowler Umran Malik was not pleased.
Coming back to his batting, former India opener Gautam Gambhir too pointed out that it is about time Samson grabbed his chances. "We all talk about how much talent he has but he needs to capitalise on these chances," he said during the Byju's Cricket Live Show.
