Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath has requested the Indian team management, headed by Gautam Gambhir, to give an extended run till the end of the year to the opening batter Sanju Samson in T20Is.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, the former CSK batter doesn’t want Samson to get dropped for the teen batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Notably, Samson was axed for Sooryavanshi on the recent Zimbabwe tour.
“Samson has performed well and is coming off a half-century. I feel he should get an extended run till the end of the year. He has scored two centuries and won India the World Cup. Though he hasn’t delivered extraordinary performances like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, he was already there in the line. So why do you have to drop him to bring in another youngster? Give Sanju an extended run and then decide,” Badrinath said.
“Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson should open in the next 10 T20Is after this series. After that, if Sanju Samson fails, drop him and pick Sooryavanshi. They should follow this process instead of alternating between the two from one series to the next. I feel this has been unfair to Samson,” he added.
In the second T20I against Afghanistan in Delhi, Samson scored a 57-run knock off 22 balls. It’s important to note that Samson was named Player of the Tournament in the recent T20 World Cup 2026 campaign after scoring 321 runs in five innings at an average of 80.25 and a strike rate of 199.37.
On the other hand, Sooryavanshi, who replaced Samson on the Zimbabwe tour, starred after a tough tour of England with a Player of the Series performance, scoring 151 runs from three innings with two half-centuries.
