KOLKATA: Eden Gardens, in hindsight, was the perfect stage for the apogee of Sanju Samson's career. It was at the same venue the slide began in January last year. The five-match series against England started here with Sanju scoring 26 off 20 in the opener.
What followed next was a string of failures with England pacers outclassing him with short balls. Since that opening match at the Eden Gardens, the 31-year-old wicketkeeper-batter played 22 matches managing 314 runs from 18 innings at an average of 17.44 and strike rate of 135.34 with just one fifty to his credit.
The numbers are enough to highlight how his fortunes took a nosedive in the last 13 months as a result of which he lost his preferred opening slot and was shifted to middle order before losing his place in the playing XI.
With Ishan Kishan making a dream comeback just ahead of the T20 World Cup and Abhishek Sharma destroying bowling attacks at will, the writing had seemed to be on the wall for the Kerala cricketer. Sanju was still in the squad of 15 but could only get a game when Abhishek had to be hospitalised due to severe stomach infection. But once the Punjab batter returned, Sanju once again had to make a way for him after the Namibia match.
It's then something happened with the co-hosts losing a wicket each in the first over of the next three matches to an off-spinner. It forced the team management to come out with a different plan. India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak explained the reason behind change in tactics that eventually opened the door for Samson.
"Mainly, there were three left-handers in the top order. And in three matches, we lost the wicket in the first over to off spinners. Not necessarily because of the off-spinner and left-hander. But we felt that we needed to break something. We needed to do something different. That was the reason, I think. And obviously, everyone had trust in Sanju. The way Ishan (Kishan) came and performed. But everybody knew that Sanju would perform. Even in the first match, when he had scored 22 against Namibia. So, we all knew. So, I think the way that situation was created, we felt that was the best choice," Kotak told journalists in the mixed zone after India's win over West Indies on Sunday.
During that lean period, Sanju, in his desperation to get back among the runs, started having trigger movements and that deepened his crisis further. The visibly 'off-balance' Sanju became more vulnerable. Kotak said they worked on creating a better base for him and it paid off as Sanju played a memorable innings in a do-or-die match. "... no point going too deep into his technical things. (But) he also felt he was getting ready a little early. And that helped, I think. So, just for the cricket nerds, how does that help in the batting? In a very simple language. If you try to hit a ball, when you have a lot of weight on one leg, and when you have equal weight on both legs, then your base is created. Obviously, your hands move faster. So, that's something."
One thing the management did right throughout that period was making sure Sanju trains enough in the nets so that when an opportunity comes calling, he is battle ready. It was there for everyone to seewhen he batted in the nets for almost two-and-a-half-hours ahead of the match against South Africa in Ahmedabad. Kotak said it was captain Suryakumar Yadav who asked him to ask Sanju to bat as Indian bowlers wanted to bowl to right-handers but the batting coach also asserted that he always wanted Sanju to be among the first set of batters to train at the nets given the batter's potential to change the game single-handedly on his day.