Dubai: The Indian team management is unlikely to tinker too much with its playing eleven for the marquee Asia Cup clash against Pakistan but Sanju Samson’s batting slot will surely be a hot topic of discussion come Sunday.
In the lead-up to the first game, it didn’t seem like Samson was in the scheme of things but once he was rested for the optional training on eve of the team’s tournament opener against UAE, it became clear that the Kerala dasher would be playing ahead of Jitesh Sharma.
The UAE game, in which skipper Suryakumar Yadav came in at the fall of Abhishek Sharma’s wicket during the team’s chase of 58, is no indicator and it remains to be seen where Samson fits in against better sides.
Sunil Gavaskar in a recent interaction told PTI that “Samson can’t be played below No. 3 and in that case Tilak Varma needs to come in at No. 5.”
Of the three formats, T20 is one where ‘data points’ play a bigger role compared to the other two.
The data seemingly suggests that Samson is virtually ineffective beyond the opening position although he has had modest success at two down. And herein lies the problem as the left-handed Tilak is also not very effective beyond the No. 3 position in T20Is.
The third angle of this triangle is the skipper himself, who became a world beater by batting regularly at No.3 for India in the past few years.
With Samson there is a two-fold problem. Firstly, he has batted in 38 innings for India and 14 out of those having been when he has faced the first ball of the innings (No.1). He has scored 512 out of his 861 runs at this position with a fantastic strike-rate of 182.2 and three hundreds and a fifty.
He has also batted at various numbers from 2-7 but the other significant slot has been No. 4 where he played 11 innings and scored 164 runs with a fifty and a below par strike-rate of 129.9.
So out of 38 innings, in 25 he has either batted at No. 1 or No. 4. In all other slots — his contributions have been negligible and came at a very poor strike rate. It is also a reflection that he hasn’t exactly been very successful in negotiating the slow bowlers in middle overs although in internationals, he hasn’t faced too much of spin bowling.
Secondly, when one looks at Tilak’s numbers for India, it becomes clear that he revels at either No. 3 or No. 4 as in 21 out of his 24 innings, the Andhra left-hander has batted at these two slots.
Offering his take on the issue during a media briefing here on Friday, India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said, “Sanju Samson hasn’t batted a lot at No. 5 or 6 but that doesn’t mean he can’t bat at that position. Everyone knows their roles. Last match he didn’t bat at No. 3 but it doesn’t mean same thing will happen in next game.”
In 13 innings at No.3, Samson has scored 443 runs at a strike-rate close to 170 with both his centuries against South Africa coming while he batted at that slot. He has been okay at No. 4 with 256 runs from eight knocks at a strike-rate close to 138.
In this current Indian set-up under Surya, the skipper and Tilak swapping positions as No. 3 and 4 has worked well for the side.
But now with Gill at the top and the team management preferring an extra top-order keeper-batter in Samson rather than a finisher like Jitesh at the start of the tournament, it is creating a problem with slots.
The Indian T20I skipper has maintained that beyond openers, who have fixed slots, everyone from number 3 to 7 need to be flexible according to the team’s needs but the numbers are telling a very different story.
The problem with Samson being asked to bat in the middle order is also fraught with the prospect of him not being able to dominate the slower bowlers on a slightly tackier track here in Dubai compared to ones that he would get in India or South Africa.
In the IPL, his strike-rate against wrist-spinners (right-arm and left-arm) and left-arm orthodox spinners is less than 140. He has a strike-rate of 136.61 plus in 86 innings with 791 runs in 579 balls against wrist spinners. He has been dismissed 22 times and has a dot ball percentage of 32.64.
He has 49 sixes which means that he can hit a wrist spinner for a maximum every 11.81 (roughly 12) deliveries. Remember Pakistan have two wrist spinner — Abrar Ahmed and Sufiyan Muqeem (left-arm wrist spin) — and at least one of them will certainly play.
In 15 innings in T20Is in which he has played wrist spinners, he has been dismissed seven times, which is effectively one out of every two knocks.
When it comes to Samson’s statistics against left-arm spinners in the IPL, it is a shade better as he has 695 runs from 503 balls with a strike-rate of 138.17. The dot ball percentage is 28.23 and he has hit one six off every eight balls (7.85). He has got 34 of them.
The spinners are operational primarily between overs 7 to 16-17th overs depending on match situations and availability of tweakers in playing eleven.
Now that he has had to forego his opening slot to vice-captain Gill, Samson’s best shot at success is at No.3
