Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has claimed that Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav should put him as India’s number 3 batsman and suggested that Sanju Samson should not be constantly moved up and down the batting order.
India started their T20I campaign in Australia with a humiliating loss in Melbourne after their first match in Canberra was washed out by rain. Samson had an unimpressive outing in the series despite being sent off at No. 1 early. 3.
Sanju Samson’s form has taken a major dip since he was demoted from the opening position in the Indian team. During the Asia Cup, he was sent at number 5 but scored one half-century when sent down first.
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Sanju Samson gives his opinion on Suryakumar Yadav’s role in the Indian batting order
India managed to score just 125 runs in the second T20I against Australia at the MCG, raising serious concerns about the Indian coach’s tactics on tracks other than the flat pitches of the subcontinent.
“As for Sanju Samson, if he keeps moving up and down the batting order like this, I’m not sure how effective it will be,” Pathan said on his YouTube channel.
Samson was again in the spotlight and was promoted higher; however, he couldn’t nail the role. He will have to learn to bat in the middle order if he wants to extend his stay in the T20I team. Irfan Pathan suggested that every player in the team should be given a permanent position.
“I know in T20 cricket, barring the openers, no one really has a set position, and flexibility is important. But in the name of flexibility, you should not become so elastic that you lose the stability that comes with having defined roles. That is something the Indian team really needs to pay attention to,” Pathan warned.
Sanju Samson is given a stern warning to score runs for India
While Suryakumar Yadav has also failed to show promise for India since becoming India captain, Irfan Pathan has now suggested that he would put himself at number three, a position he took up under the leadership of Rohit Sharma.
Finally, Pathan gave a stern warning to Sanju Samson to score some runs in Australia as the support would not be extended for long as he had failed to produce promising performances to his name.
“There is no doubt that he will get the support he needs. But that support can quickly fade if a player has three or four failures in a row. Hopefully that won’t happen with Sanju Samson,” concluded the former all-rounder.
Irfan Pathan highlights the disadvantages of the sliding order
Not just Samson, Suryakumar or Tilak Varma, but the Indian lower order too have seen constant changes within the T20I setup. They are still in the experimental stage as Harshit Rana was sent before Shivam Dube.
“When you repeatedly change a player’s role, things naturally change. Playing against the older ball in the middle overs, which Sanju Samson did in the Asia Cup, is very different from opening the innings, where he had scored three centuries,” Pathan explains about the drawbacks of a changing batting order.
“It requires a different mentality and a lot of mental strength, together with strong support from the team,” he concluded.
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