CHENNAI: When New Zealand and Afghanistan kick-started their T20 World Cup campaign in Chennai two weeks ago, the city was still enjoying its last bit of spring. The temperature was in the early 20s, and the humidity was not high. And one could feel the sea breeze cutting through the MA Chidambaram Stadium all day.
On Tuesday evening, as the Suryakumar Yadav-led Indian team walked onto the field, the Sun was beating down. Chennai Summer has already kicked in. The temperature has increased significantly in the last week or so, and it was impossible to miss the heat and humidity. And the Men in Blue felt it too as they rallied for the warm-up before beginning a full-squad training session – Rinku Singh was the lone member missing as he had left for Delhi due to a family emergency.
On the field, India are already under the pump after the loss against South Africa, and now, the focus has shifted to Sanju Samson once again. Abhishek Sharma’s poor form and illness, along with Tilak Varma’s struggles against spin, have made Samson the talking point. India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate had hinted as much in Ahmedabad. “You stick with the guys who we feel have performed really well over the last 18 months and who are maybe shy of a few runs now? Or do we twist and bring Sanju, who's also a fantastic player and obviously helps tactically with having a right-hander at the top of the order, and I'm sure that'll be a talking point over the next few days going into these two very important games,” he had said.
On Tuesday, he came up to the pitch along with Hardik Pandya before going through the warm-up drills. Soon, he padded up and joined Ishan Kishan in one of the nets while Surya and Tilak batted together in the other. Samson started his stint around 6.38 PM, facing seamers including Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube and Mohammed Siraj. He struggled to time the ball in the first hit, but by the time he swapped with Kishan for the third time, Samson had hit the strides.
He continued with the usual big back and across trigger movement and picked up everything that was on the back of length or shorter, swatting and pulling Siraj and Arshdeep into stands. Anything on the offside and at the stumps, Samson was caught stuck in the crease and couldn’t hit as much through the offside. After a long and intense session, he and Kishan moved to the other end of the ground to face spinners. Another half hour later, he went to do some keeping drills with T Dilip before moving to the outdoor nets for another extensive hit.
At the MAC B nets, Samson started from scratch once again. He faced throwdowns from Ten Doeschate and net bowlers for close to thirty minutes before walking back into the ground. Meanwhile, Abhishek, Pandya, Dube and Axar batted next, and they did so extensively.
Though one cannot jump to conclusions from the net session, Rinku’s unfortunate situation, coupled with the pressure India are under, puts out-of-form Samson in the spotlight. However, if Samson comes into the playing XI, it throws up two-three different combinations. With Surya making it clear that neither Abhishek nor Tilak is getting dropped, if Samson were to come in, it is likely to be in place of Rinku. And if Samson does play, he is likely to open the batting. Which would mean one of the other two lefties will move to No 3, pushing Tilak down to No 4 and Surya to No 5. That puts every batter one slot lower than they are supposed to, disrupting the balance of the line-up. The out-of-the-box option is to slot Samson in the middle-order; however, it has not worked in the past, and the nets do not indicate so.
The only way the balance remains the same is if Samson comes in as a straight swap for Abhishek, but it will be a drastic move for a team that has thrown its weight behind the opener who has carried the team over the last 18 months. With uncertainty around Rinku, who is in Delhi at the moment, there are different options they may try. And one of them is Samson, who will be playing at this venue for the first time since switching to the Chennai Super Kings.
The thing with Samson and Chennai is that even though he is from Kerala, the keeper-batter has always had a significant following in the city, even when he has turned up for India A. If he does get a game, there may not be a better place to find some form and make an impact.