Sanju Samson is among several wicketkeeper-batters vying for a spot in India’s T20 team.
With the selection of Dinesh Karthik in India’s T20I squad for the South Africa series, the options are many for the Indian team management when it comes to wicketkeeper-batter. Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan are the other two wicketkeeper-batters in the squad. Sanju Samson is also another choice who has been in and out of the squad. Together the four presents a situation where, the selectors may be spoilt for choice. India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev gave his take on who among the four is the best for the wicketkeeper-batter’s role.
“If you talk about wicketkeepers, all of them are almost same. But if you take about the better batter, on a given day all four can win you matches. If you talk about Wriddhiman Saha, he is better wicket-keeper than these four. But these four, as a batsman, are better,” Kapil Dev said in a discussion on Uncut.
“I am disappointed with Sanju Samson. He is so talented. He does well in one or two matches and then he does not do anything. If we talk about consistency currently, Dinesh Karthik is ahead of all. Ishan Kishan has, I think, come under pressure. Maybe it’s the pressure of the high price that he garnered at the IPL auction. I have never got so much money so I will not be able to say.
“I don’t think Dinesh Karthik has surpassed Rishabh Pant in T20s. But this time he has done so well that he forced selectors to not ignore him. Pant is a youngster who has lot of cricket left, then there is Karthik who has loads of experience. The more said about Karthik the less. He started before Dhoni and is still continuing.”
Recently, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said Dinesh Karthik should be in India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. Karthik scored 330 runs during IPL 2022 for RCB , striking at an impressive strike rate of 183.33.
“I would have him, and I’d have him in at that five or six role probably. The way that he finished games for RCB this year, he took his game to another level. Rishabh (Pant) will probably keep the gloves, there’s no doubt about that, but Dinesh was exceptional,” Ponting said on the ICC Review.
“Virat (Kohli) having the year he’s had, Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) started the tournament really well…but DK was the one. And Faf too I guess, who kept the RCB bandwagon rolling. I’d be surprised if he’s not in there (India) line-up somewhere,” he added.
