For the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka that starts on Saturday, the new head coach of Team India, Gautam Gambhir will have to choose between Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson.
However, as much as most of the team that won the T20 World Cup except for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli is based in this island nation, there is a big question mark on whether to select one among flamboyant wicketkeeper batters Pant and Samson.
Consequently, it would be impossible to create room for both power hitters. Although Samson was part of his squad, he did not play any match. In addition, Rishabh Pant finished third with 171 runs in T20 World Cup for India according to PTI.
The nature of bilateral series between Sri Lanka and India has recently become low-stakes as they frequently take place with no purpose such as supporting other international cricket boards.
This was supposed to be one such series with Sri Lanka but since Gambhir became their coach while Suryakumar Yadav surpassed Hardik Pandya who appeared destined to be captain lead the Indian side instead.
In view of this development, Gambhir- an extremely opinionated former Indian opening batsman turned successful coach at franchise level-would therefore definitely wield more control over who makes up the team over next two years leading into T20 World Cup.
India has been faced with a tough task; choosing a keeper-batter for T20Is particularly when Rishabh Pant was injured after a terrible car crash in December 2022.
Before falling out of favour having also left halfway through South Africa tour earlier this year Ishan Kishan had been around for quite some time. So far so good because Samson played some games as well as Jitesh Sharma and Dhruv Jurel on that time being.
A fellow wicketkeeper-batter alongside him, Samson has played 28 Twenty20 International matches with 133 runs, a strike rate of and he has scored a few fifties. Although his debut happened in 2015, it would be fair to say that 27 out of these games have been played from 2020 onwards. Therefore, playing over 27 games irregularly across three and half years is not enough exposure to build self-belief.
That is still significantly lower than what should have been expected from Kerala’s star. This, however, does not depict the true picture for Rishabh Pant who played 74 T20I matches with an average below three fifties and just short of a strike rate of 127. Also known as the captain of Delhi Capitals, whose tally read as an average of Jinkye Rahane’s performance per game was around twenty-two seventieths.
The mere numbers do not create much differentiation between two individuals on this aspect. As such Pant has very impressive falling shots while Samson can clear fast bowlers above extra cover on occasions.
However, it will depend upon how the new team management looks at it. Meanwhile during T20 World Cup despite being in the squad Samson was never even discussed because Rohit Sharma believes strongly in Pant’s competence.
However, in the T20I World Cup tour that followed, Samson featured only in the last three games in Zimbabwe and was made vice-captain to Shubman Gill when many youngsters in his first XI were rested.
In T20Is though, because the balls facing gloves men are few, wicket keeping skills do not matter much. Nevertheless, Rishabh Pant is a far better spin keeper than Ravi Bishnoi.
Gambhir saw Pant as an 18-year-old even before he played for India U-19s and was captain when he made his debut at first-class level. However, throughout his time as a TV analyst, he has also been a strong supporter of Samson’s T20 abilities and has spoken out in favor of his selection.
This will be difficult; but if selected for the series Pant knows well enough that he would need to play some big innings too in order to accumulate runs quickly and keep Samson behind him.
