Former Indian opener and commentator Kris Srikkanth has slammed the Indian team management, headed by Gautam Gambhir, for mishandling the Indian opening batter Sanju Samson.
Notably, Samson could score only 10 runs off eight balls in the first T20I against Afghanistan on Sunday in Delhi. While he was part of the first T20I on the recent England tour, he was axed for three games, only to return for the last T20I. Moreover, he was axed from the squad for the Zimbabwe tour.
“This team management is playing around with Sanju Samson. I pity Samson. Either you give him an extended run and then drop him or give Vaibhav Sooryavanshi a run of matches without dropping him. The mistake India are making is both are getting two matches here and there. That’s not good for the player,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
Further, Srikkanth requested the team management to stop the constant changes between Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Notably, Sooryavanshi ended the recent Zimbabwe tour as the player of the series, emerging as the leading run-scorer in the three-match series.
“Now again they’ll play Sooryavanshi in the next match. They should actually tell him that he won’t be dropped for the next few series. Only then he’ll have no worries and start scoring. He’s such a brilliant player that he’ll score against all the big teams also,” he added.
For the unversed, Samson won two back-to-back Player of the Match (POTM) awards during India’s victorious 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup campaign and went on to be named the Player of the Tournament. Samson amassed 321 runs across just five innings at a staggering average of 80.25 and an explosive strike rate of 199.37.
