For more than a decade, Sanju Samson has remained one of Indian cricket’s most intriguing contradictions — a batter blessed with rare elegance and undeniable talent, yet one whose T20I career has been marked by baffling inconsistency. His recent poor run — scores of 10, 6 and 0 in the first three games against New Zealand — only underlines the concern.The contrast becomes sharper when viewed alongside nearest competitor Ishan Kishan, whose midas touch has impressed fans and experts alike.
There is often confusion between statistics and data. While statistics offer a linear snapshot, data attempts to identify trends by digging deeper.Across 55 T20Is in 11 years, Samson has scored 1048 runs at a strike-rate of 147-plus (average slightly irrelevant in modern T20I metrics), with three fifties and three hundreds — two of which came in South Africa in late 2024.His strike-rate against Australia stands at 131, drops to 118 versus England, and further dips to 113 against New Zealand.Since opening from 2025, certain patterns have emerged. England found a method early last year, bowling fast and short into his body across five consecutive games, forcing hurried pull shots devoid of power or timing.In 2026, Matt Henry (twice) and Kyle Jamieson, both operating in the mid-130s, have largely bowled straight or on leg-middle lines, preventing him from freeing his arms on the off-side.To understand the issues affecting Samson’s batting, PTI spoke to former India opener WV Raman — regarded as one of the country’s most authoritative voices on batting technique — and Rajasthan Royals High Performance Director Zubin Bharucha, who has worked closely with Samson.“Sanju has a bit of problem both on technical and mindset front. The bat-speed on his downswing is the same for bowlers with different speeds. It will fetch him success against bowlers in the 130 kmph mark.“But anything above or less than 130 kmph mark with variations in pace either way, will create issue. The solution is to adjust his bat-speed on the downswing according to the pace of the ball. Once he does that, he should be alright,” Raman said when asked about whether problem is of technical nature or it is the mindset.“On the mental front, he knows that there is a lot of competition for the wicketkeeper-batter’s slot in white ball cricket. That’s all probably putting pressure on him because he still has enough talent to work this out. He is capable player and can deliver for India,” Raman said.Raman, however, does not believe that moving Samson in the middle order has necessarily disrupted his rhythm, pointing out that players of this generation pride themselves on flexibility.“In the T20Is, he is suited for top three and he shouldn’t have any issues on that front because that is where he can perform at his best. These days, these boys talk about adaptation and being able to bat anywhere.“There shouldn’t be a problem unless you are sent extremely down the order,” Raman said.Samson is widely known as a confidence player. A few years ago, he recounted in a podcast how, after being dismissed cheaply in a match, he quietly slipped out of the stadium and sulked along Marine Drive.For Bharucha, who has worked with several Rajasthan Royals youngsters including Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel, the issue lies largely in the mental space.“There is nothing technical at all. It’s all in the mind for him. He oscillates from mercurial to average because of lack of clarity but it happens with everyone.“Every player that’s played the game goes through this, he is no exception – Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) just recently. It’s just a matter of learning to manage it better,” feels Bharucha, who has conducted extensive research into batting mechanics.Ravichandran Ashwin recently highlighted how New Zealand attacked Samson with straighter lines, while England opted for short and fast bowling.“In such situation, it’s just about hitting a few more balls in areas you feel might be weaker than your strength. He has been scoring a lot more runs on the off-side than on-side, deliberately,” Bharucha said.“This is what all batters do, making the bowler bowl an off stump line but get into positions to score from that line. Now this immediately prompts the bowler to compensate and come inside (middle and leg) and from that position it should be easier and less risky to hit into the on-side.“Sometimes when you overly set-up to open up the off-side, you can be a little out of position for the leg-side. Just requires a little more awareness around it because Samson already has the on-side shots.”Asked about possible solutions, Bharucha added: “Hit a few more balls in that area during practice. Ideally, constantly get the throwdown expert to move from the off stump line to the leg stump line.”
