Follow UsFormer India opener Aakash Chopra has slammed the Indian management for their treatment of Sanju Samson, who was axed midway through the Australia T20Is after just one failure.
2024 witnessed Samson enjoy an extraordinary run as an opener after hammering 3 T20I tons, including two away in South Africa, but after a quiet series at home against England at the start of 2025, he was replaced as opener by Shubman Gill, with the Kerala batter pushed down the order in Asia Cup 2025.
Samson racked up scores of 56, 39, 13 & 24 in the Asia Cup and played a key hand in the final, but he was axed from the side for the third and fourth T20Is against Australia after posting 2 in the second T20I in Melbourne.
Chopra was left puzzled by the management’s handling of Samson.
“The biggest question is, what are we doing with Sanju Samson?,” Chopra said, reported Times of India.
“He has done reasonably well, scoring a fifty against Oman and performing decently in the Asia Cup final. Yet, he keeps getting moved around and dropped. The management said they know what they are doing with him, and we respected that — but now this situation makes no sense.”
Samson’s replacement, Jitesh Sharma, began with 22* off 13 balls in the third T20I but endured a failure in the fourth game, managing just 3 runs. Chopra was unsure if Jitesh would get an extended run either.
“If Jitesh has done well and the team has won, logic says you continue with him. But will they actually do that? I don’t know. There’s no clear direction here,” he said.
With only a few months left for the T20 World Cup at home, team India, then, are yet to zero in on their wicketkeeper.