IPL 2022 – “Wasting Good Form And Opportunity”: WI Great Serves Wake-Up Call To Sanju Samson On India Comeback

Sanju Samson, despite starting the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 with a half-century, has not been able to maintain his form for Rajasthan Royals (RR). The 27-ball 55 that the 27-year-old hit in RR’s season opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad remains his only half-century in eight matches. In fact, in the last six matches, the wicketkeeper-batter has fallen for below 30 on four occasions. With the IPL being one of the last opportunities to impress the BCCI selectors for a ticket to the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, Samson’s inability to score big might be an issue.

In eight matches so far in the IPL 2022, Samson has scored 228 runs at an average of 32.57 and a strike-rate of 165.22. West Indies pace great Ian Bishop feels Samson can do much better.

“That Sanju is wasting good form and good opportunity to score runs to press for an international recall, to lead his team when Jos Buttler doesn’t score,” Bishop said on ESPNCricinfo’s ‘T20 Time Out’.

Although, Samson is a delight to watch when he gets going, the free-flowing right hander is yet to consistently play the kind of impactful innings one expects from him. He last featured for India in the T20 home series against Sri Lanka in February.

With the flamboyant Jos Buttler failing against RCB on Tuesday, it was the perfect opportunity for the RR skipper to rise to the occasion. Samson even looked in good touch, smashing three sixes and a four but could only manage 27 off 21.

He was dismissed by Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga after missing an attempted reverse-sweep.

“It’s not that Sanju’s out of form. But that’s a match-up with Wanindu Hasaranga and him, and he should have known better. He got out of the blocks quite nicely,” Bishop said. “I’m a Sanju Samson fan, been that way for years now, (but) he’s wasting good form by shot selection,” Bishop added.

Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori felt that the game comes too “easy” to Samson and he thus tries to do too many things.

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“It feels like the game is too easy for him, so ‘I’m going to try something different, I’m going to try and make sure I can play every shot in the book’. He is at his best when he’s striking down the ground,” Vettori said.

“He’s a joy to watch when he’s playing that well. But everything looks a little bit easy and sometimes it feels like he isn’t in the moment, and then he’s out.”