Sanju Samson ruled out of remainder of Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka
Middle order batter suffers knee injury while fielding during first match
Dubai: Team India wicketkeeper batter Sanju Samson has been ruled out of the remainder of the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka due to injury suffered in the first Twenty20 in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Samson hurt his left knee while attempting to field a ball near the boundary ropes and was taken for scans and a specialist opinion on Wednesday afternoon in Mumbai by the BCCI Medical Team. The 28-year-old has been advised rest and rehabilitation.
The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Jitesh Sharma as replacement for Samson.
A big blow
The injury must have come as a big blow for Samson after the talented middle-order batter has come under immense criticism for throwing his wicket away, despite getting a life only a couple of balls earlier.
“Sanju Samson has so much talent but his shot selection sometimes lets him down. And this is one more occasion where it has disappointed,” said former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar on air during the match.
The 28-year old Samson also made an error early in Sri Lanka innings, when he dropped a catch of Pathum Nissanka at mid-off on just the second ball of their chase on the bowling of captain Hardik Pandya. He made up for the missed chance by taking catches of Kusal Mendis and De Silva.
High-time to capitalise
Talking about Samson, former India opener Gautam Gambhir said it’s high time that the right-handed batter grabs his chances in the T20I set-up.
“We all talk about how much talent he has but he needs to capitalise on these chances,” he said during the Cricket Live Show on Star Sports.
With a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, India will next face Sri Lanka at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Thursday.
While Samson missed the opportunity, Shivam Mavi, one of the two debutants, grabbed the chance with both hands by claiming a four-wicket haul in India’s two-run win in last-ball thriller.
Mavi, 24, made great use of the slow-paced Wankhede pitch to claim his maiden four-fer, becoming only the third Indian to do so on debut. But Shubman Gill, the other debutant, could score only seven runs and left India and Hardik Pandya to solve another opening conundrum.
Rectify mistakes
Gill will expect Pandya to give him another opportunity in the second T20 match at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium as Pune provides both teams another chance to rectify their mistakes and decide the fate of the series.
The two sides have already met twice at the MCA Stadium — in 2016 and 2020. Sri Lanka won the first meeting by 5 wickets and India won the second by 78 runs.
The pitch is expected to be a typical MCA pitch, good for batting with assistance to spin bowling.
India’s updated squad:
Hardik Pandya (captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (vice-captain), Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar.