Asia Cup: Sanju Samson compares himself to Kerala actor Mohanlal on different batting roles

Dubai: You can’t keep Sanju Samson out of the conversation for long. The dynamic Indian batter has been shuffled across various positions in the T20 lineup, adapting to the team’s needs.

During India’s comfortable Super 4 win over Bangladesh on Wednesday, questions arose when Samson didn’t get a chance to bat at all. Despite being in the playing XI, the team management promoted Axar Patel to No 7 — he scored just 10 off 15 balls — leaving fans puzzled about Samson’s role.

Earlier in the day, Samson spoke to Sony Sports Network in a candid interview with former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar. When asked about his preferred batting position, Samson gave a thoughtful — and humorous — analogy, invoking legendary actor Mohanlal to explain his flexible mindset.

“There’s our actor, Mohanlal, who received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award from the Indian government. He has been acting for 20, 30, 40 years. I’ve been playing for India for 10 years now. So I can’t come in and say, ‘I can only do the hero role.’ I need to be the villain, the joker, play all sorts of roles,” Samson said with a smile. “You can’t just say, ‘I’ve scored runs opening the innings, so I should always bat in the top three.’ I feel like saying, ‘Let me try other roles too.’ No one can say I can’t be a good villain. Let’s see how it goes.”

To this, Manjrekar jokingly responded: “Well done, Mohanlal. Sorry, Sanju Samson.”

At the Asia Cup, Samson has had limited opportunities. Across five matches, he’s batted just twice, with a half-century against Oman being his standout contribution. Before the tournament, Samson was regularly opening the innings. But with Shubman Gill returning to the squad and partnering with Abhishek Sharma at the top, the batting order has shifted — Suryakumar Yadav now bats at No 3, pushing Samson down to No 5.

In fact, since Gill began opening, Samson has played at No. 3 just once — in the match against Oman.