Former Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal has taken a dig at the Indian team management for demoting Sanju Samson in the batting order during 1st T20 between India and West Indies. Akmal pointed out that Samson plays in the top four for Rajasthan Royals in IPL and sending him at No.6 during the first T20 was a bat decision.
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“When I talk about Sanju, does he play in IPL at no.6? Akmal on Samson
He plays in top-4, give him a chance there. If Kohli and Rohit aren’t there, these batsmen should play higher in the order like 4 or 5. If you send him at 6, thinking he played aggressively in last ODI so he can do that again, it does not happen every time,” Akmal said on his YouTube channel.
Akmal also opined that coach Rahul Dravid and Hardik Pandya were overconfident seeing the West Indies’ total of 149 runs.
“When India came for chase, I thought the captain, the coach, the management, they were all overconfident. It felt like they thought, ‘it’s a nothing total’. You have to plan. I didn’t see that. I saw experiments but you need planning with it,” Akmal added.
Speaking about the first T20, West Indies batted first and managed to post just 149 runs on the board thanks to some impressive bowling performance from the Indian spinners. The Men in Maroon also had a good start with the ball as they removed Gill early in the powerplay. However, some impressive batting especially by Tilak Varma saw India cruising to the total.
With just 37 needed off last 5 overs, skipper Hardik and Sanju were present at the crease. However, a game changing over from Jason Holder pulled things back in home side’s favor as they ended up winning the series opener by 4 runs.
