New Delhi: Mohammad Nabi moved to his left, leaped ever so slightly at the long-off boundary rope, got his hands underneath the leather and held on. A few inches more and the ball would have possibly evaded him for a six. Instead, he gestured ‘out’ to the umpire and a probing Rashid Khan. The Afghanistan spinner checked if the foot was planted safely and comfortably inside the field of play. The moment he got the nod, the 27-year-old went on to celebrate his second wicket of the over. Sanju Samson walked back after scoring 57 runs from 22 balls, hitting seven fours and four sixes along the way.As far as rubber stamping their places go, this was Samson’s attempt – with 52 of his 57 runs coming in boundaries. In a game of musical chairs that he’s been involved in with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Samson has, arguably, had the raw end of the deal. And here he was, suggesting once again that he wasn’t going away easily.On the back of a stellar T20 World Cup, playing a huge role in India winning the trophy, he was benched unceremoniously after a poor showing against Ireland. In came Sooryavanshi, who didn’t hit the ground running on his inauguration to the international stage. Samson then returned for the last two T20I against England before missing the flight to Zimbabwe. There, Sooryavanshi who went hammer and tongs and emerged as the Player of the Match.Yet, as the T20I series against Afghanistan rolled around, Samson was picked to open the innings alongside Abhishek Sharma. He started the series with just 10 before producing the goods in the second contest.Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi bore the bulk of his prolific shot-making at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday. The former conceded 23 from 10 balls while the latter went for 22 from seven deliveries. The aspect that stood out, and stands out in most Samson knocks, is the ease with which he clear the in-field.An overpitched start to the fifth over by Omarzai was sent over the mid-on fielder. Next ball, short and spraying down leg side, he sent it over the fine leg region. The one after that was pitched up and again met the treatment: slashed over the cover, one bounce and it went into the hands of the volunteers. To end the over, Samson converted a low full toss with the full face of his bat, knocked over the stumps at the non-striker’s end and yet beat the fielder for a four!
Sanju Samson
Even Rashid Khan was whacked for a four and a six before the Afghanistan spinner, and rest of the bowlers, perhaps, breathed a collective sigh of relief.“It’s about just watching the ball and trying to get maximum out in the powerplay. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes it doesn’t. After a few failures, you definitely go through a lot. Being an Indian cricketer, it’s not easy to face failures, but that’s where my experience comes in,” he said in the post-match press conference.“I try to shut out the noise, try to be confident and come out and still keep scoring at a high strike rate, even taking the chances, even knowing that if I fail again, I will be facing a lot of noise. But I think that’s the way we are built here in Indian cricket. I just go out there and try to score maximum and contribute,” he continued.
As Samson took the crease in the first T20I, and not Sooryavanshi, the experts were divided. Kris Srikanth argued that Sooryavanshi “wasn’t being treated properly”. R Ashwin, meanwhile, implored the selectors, coaches and beyond to “understand his position.” And yet, Samson gets how challenging making this call between the two is.“It’s a very challenging place to be in. Right from the whole team management, the captain, coach and selectors. It’s a very tough choice, actually. All of them (himself, Sooryavanshi and Abhishek Sharma) are really good, all of them are performing, and all of them have to be given the right opportunity to keep performing at the international level,” said Samson.“It’s a very tough decision. I totally understand. I lead an IPL franchise, so I know how hard these decisions are, and everyone has been performing really well.”“I have been in this kind of space for quite a few years, so I just know how to balance it out. Just think about what is in my control and try to be very positive with your competitors as well.“I think they are competitors for the outside world, but we are a team and we are playing for a country. We want to win the game first, and then it comes down to the other individuals.“We try to be as positive as possible, and whoever is playing, we want them to do well. We just have to be ready for our own opportunity. We can’t sulk or be in a negative frame of mind, thinking, ‘Yaar, mujhe nahi mila, usko kyun diya?’ Those kinds of mindsets don’t work here,” he explained.For now, Samson has seemingly stalled the debate with a cracking knock in New Delhi. But whether it is enough to get a longer rope, with continued chances, remains to be seen.