“This is twice in about 12 months” - Aakash Chopra opens up on Sanju Samson’s struggles in T20Is

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra has slammed the Indian opening batter Sanju Samson for his constant failures in the just concluded five-match T20I series against New Zealand as India bagged a 4-1 series win.

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Speaking exclusively on ESPNCricinfo, Chopra delved into the technical details, revealing the key reasons why Samson has been constantly failing to score runs in the shortest format of the game ahead of the much-awaited ICC T20 World Cup 2026 campaign. 

“I think now this is twice in about 12 months. It all started with that England series. Very rarely do you find a top class batter developing a pattern, especially in the shortest format of the game. He got dismissed five times in the same fashion – short ball caught in the deep. Here also, if you see his dismissals versus pace, there is an eerie pattern to it,” Chopra said in a discussion on ESPNcricinfo.

“You go deep inside the crease even before the ball is bowled. You try and play the ball, but the front foot doesn’t go anywhere. As a result, your bat actually closes every single time you play. He got lucky with an outside edge once in Thiruvananthapuram. In the previous game again, he closed the bat a bit too early, so again a pattern has developed,” he added.

In five games, Samson could score only 46 runs, which turned out to be a major concern for the hosts ahead of the showpiece event. On the other hand, Ishan Kishan smacked 215 runs from four games at an average of 53.75, emerging as the second-leading run-scorer of the series.

India squad for T20 World Cup 2026: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.

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