Politics behind Sanju Samson

The intriguing case of Sanju Samson – India’s specialized bench warmer.

Cricket is a funny game, they say, but it gets even funnier when the management and selectors hide themselves behind a clown’s mask. In the recent 24 months, the team management has been running the famous "Royal Indian Circus," not with animals or magicians, but with the cricket players of the Indian team. And one such player who has been made the clown, who comes in, performs, and leaves only to hide behind the tears of a clown, has been none other than Sanju Samson. While the Indian team management has been apparently under the radar for giving longer ropes to players, they have been cutting the rope short like a butcher when it comes to the Keralite, Sanju Samson. The BCCI and the Indian management have shuffled Sanju's fate like a deck of cards, with only a few opportunities to play. He has been tagged as a full-time drinks supplier and bench warming specialist.

Sanju Samson – "Friday the 13^th" of Men’s cricket?

Well, as the saying goes, "Luck favours the brave," but in Sanju’s case, he has been the bravest yet the unluckiest, to say the least. Sanju's bench warming saga began in 2014, when he was named as Dhoni's backup keeper for five One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and one Twenty20 International (T20I) against England, in which he did not appear. Following a purple patch in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2019-20, in which he scored an unbeaten 212 and the second fastest double-digit score in list A cricket. After four years, he was called back to India's T20 squad for the series against Bangladesh in 2019, but he was benched for the entire series. The series of bench warming continued for Samson in 2019, when he was called up to replace an injured Shikhar Dhawan against the West Indies, but he didn't play a single game.In December 2019, he was named to the T20 squad to play against Sri Lanka. but could only play in one of the three T20 series matches (the other was washed out).In the third T20I, he was dismissed in the second ball after hitting the first for a six. He was again selected for the T20I series of the India tour of New Zealand, again replacing an injured Dhawan, but failed to spark any interest for himself and couldn’t create any impact with the bat with a string of low scores. Even in the five matches he played leading up to the 2022 World Cup, Sanju was only able to manage one fifty (77 against Ireland) and didn’t have a marathon innings, and as a result, he didn’t make the cut for India’s T20 squad for the 2022 World Cup.

A good start to a career : A stigma for a longer rope?

Samson made his India debut in 2015—yes, that’s 7 years from now. When we talk about players debuting in 2015 for India, some of them have become legends of the game, while others have decided to quit cricket overall. But with Sanju, he has played a total of only 27 international games for India. If we compare that with Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, or Deepak Hooda, who have been tested in more or less similar batting positions as Sanju, Kishan, who debuted in 2021, has played 30 international matches; the left-handed batter, Rishabh, who made his India debut in 2017, has featured in 125 international games; and Deepak Hooda, who received his India cap in 2022, has already played 23 international games, just 4 less than someone who made his debut 7 years ago. While all the above-mentioned players had a fantastic start to their international careers, with almost a fifty in their first five innings for India, Samson had a very terrible start to his Indian career. In 2015, Samson only played one T20 game where he scored just 19 runs, after which he did not feature for India for the next five years. Samson then featured for India in 2020, and in the six games he played, he could only manage 64 runs, striking out at 139.13 with his highest score being 23. To add insult to injury, Samson then featured in three straight games in Sri Lanka with India's second-string team before failing miserably in T20 cricket, scoring only 34 runs at a poor average of 11.3 and an even worse strike rate of 94.44.

Samson vs. the rest of the lot in T20s

Hooda, who has already batted for India in 12 T20 innings, has already scored a century (104) in his first three innings. Rishabh Pant already had a 30+ score in the first two innings and a fifty in the first 10 innings of his T20I career for India. Similarly, Ishant scored 52 in his first innings for India and 89 in his first ten innings for the country. This initial spark tempted the selectors and the management to back these players ahead of Samson, and the numbers too justified the same. With the kind of competition India has, where there are plenty of backups and almost three players fighting for one slot for almost every batting position.Be it openers, one down, or the finishers' role. India has a minimum of three players on standby, to say the least. And with the kind of start Smason had to his international career, he should consider himself lucky to be even featuring in India’s squad.

Samson 2.0 since 2021: A deserving candidate?

Sanju has been that turtle from "The Tale of the Rabbit and the Turtle," where the slow and steady turtle wins the race in the end. Unlike Rishabh, Kishan, and Hooda, who had a tremendous start to their careers and have faltered as the road has progressed, like the rabbit in the old story, the story has been replicated for Samson. Ever since 2021, Sanju 2.0 has remoulded himself to be match-fit for India and is striving to play for India at the highest level.

Even after being the best player in terms of average (44.75), 11.19% higher than the second best, and the most important thing in T20 cricket, the strike rate at which he is ahead by 8 points (158.41) when compared to the second best, Hooda with 150.25 It's just disheartening to see that he has the fewest games compared to the rest of the bunch. The question then arises: Are the selectors ignoring recent performances and only judging Sanju by the age-old numbers? If we talk about ODI cricket, Sanju Samson has been a tremendous touch, scoring 284 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 105.58. Sanju also has two fifties under his belt, and in fact, he is the highest six-hitter for India in ODIs, as he has hit 14 sixes in nine ODI innings so far in 2022.

Where does Sanju stand in India’s scheme of things?

With a 50-over World Cup in less than 12 months, India’s road map to winning the World Cup doesn’t look any better either. While Indian selectors face the same problem of having too many options but only enough to cover one batting position (number four or five), With Rohit, Dhawan, and Kohli a sure thing in ODIs and Surya’s heroics in T20, one cannot ignore the dynamic batter in ODIs too. In the past 12 months, whatever cricket Sanju has played for India in ODIs, it has been as a number four or five. With 86 not out against South Africa in a run chase surely catching many eyeballs, it would be difficult for the team to ignore Samson for that spot. With the exploits of KL Rahul in 2020 as a number four, the throw of the dice for number four will be between Sanju Samson, Rahul, and Surya, which might again result in Sanju warming the bench as number five would be Rishabh Pant, followed by Hardik Pandya, to say the least, followed by the spin all-rounder and the bowlers.

Now arises the question of the decade for Sanju. Will he be warming the bench again? With the ODI squad looking almost settled, even if Sanju is selected in the squad, he can only come in as a replacement for any injured player or serve the drinks to the starting eleven, which has been his true international cricket journey. With more than 24 months until the T20 World Cup, this is where Sanju can actually make a case for himself. India’s management should definitely give Sanju an extended run in T20I as a number three or as an opener and give him the license to launch, which India desperately needs in the powerplays, which might just do wonders for a player like Samson who likes to hit sixes from the word go. But one thing that separates Sanju from the rest if the massive fan following he carries. Fans not just in India but around the globe have been rooting for the Keralite for a long time now, and a series of good innings might just be round the corner for the southpaw. While there can be many faults in Sanju’s star but he is one big star in himself considering the cheers, he gets whenever he is in the field.