Sanju Samson disappoints—you could start around 90% of your articles like this when writing about the Kerala phenom. Just when you think, right, he’s getting things on track, Samson does something that not even his staunch admirers can defend by saying: that was the right thing to do there.
Coming after two disappointing T20I series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, where he hit just 70 runs in 4 innings, Samson has gone out for 5 in his first first-class outing since February. As has been the case, it wasn’t a jaffa, nor was Samson unlucky. He simply hit a short ball that he miscued to the hands of the fielder at mid-on.
Samson had played just 7 balls before he went for the big stroke. Now the ball was there to be hit, but Samson hadn’t played first-class cricket in 7 months and last played a competitive match 45 days ago. India D were 52/3 and were in a spot of bother. It’s not up to us to decide whether it was the right shot, but the execution just wasn’t there.
Sanju Samson’s poor red-ball returns
Most have seen him in white-ball cricket, where he’s wasted opportunities one after another. But Samson’s record in red-ball cricket isn’t great either. An average of 38.54 in first-class cricket isn’t great, especially when comparing him to other wicketkeepers like Dhruv Jurel, Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant, who all average more with the bat.
His keeping skills aren’t anywhere near the other three, especially Jurel and Pant. So, his batting has to stand out. He’s been playing first-class cricket for the last 13 years and has nothing to show up for yet. In the last Ranji Trophy season (2023-24), Samson averaged just 35.4 and scored just one fifty in 6 innings.
He’s breached the 50-run mark 26 times in first-class cricket. However, his conversion rate isn’t great. Just 10 of these are centuries and only once has he hit a double hundred. It’s not like he compensates for his average or conversion rate with his strike rate either. Unlike Pant, who strikes over 70 in Test and 80 in first-class, Samson is under 60.
