In-form Sanju Samson in line for Sri Lanka series

Kerala wicketkeeper Sanju Samson could well be in the thick of things, after his impressive show in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season. Samson made his international debut for India in T20I match against Zimbabwe, back in 2015. He scored a 24-ball 19 in that game, as India went on to lose it by 10 runs to a spirited Zimbabwe side. The 23-year-old has been going great guns in the domestic circuit.

Samson scored a 68 and followed it up with a 175 against Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy. He is currently the third highest run-getter in the Ranji season, with 561 runs from nine outings. His recent hundred helped his state team stamp a 390-run win.

Samson strikes gold

The impressive thing about the youngster’s rich form is his solid strike rate of 69.86 “Over the years, I had noticed some players from the domestic circuit would score lot of runs by playing defensive, risk-free cricket. Subconsciously, I began to emulate them and tried to be defensive in my approach. This made be tentative as a batsman.” he told Indian Express.

Samsun was ordinary with the bat last season, averaging a mere 24.71. He approached Jayakumar, a former Kerala coach, who had earlier worked with Murali Vijay. And both worked hard on fine-tuning his game. “Over time, I had become more of an intuitive player than a reactive player. He (Jai sir) told me that my forte was my aggression and asked me to take it one ball at a time.” said Samson.

He might get a look in for the limited overs series against Sri Lanka, with MS Dhoni likely to rest and Rishabh Pant’s ordinary form not helping his matters. “It’s good to see that Sanju Samson has been amongst the runs this season. He has been consistent. It augurs well for him and it’s good for us since we will have more options to deliberate on,”  Chairman of Selectors MSK Prasad told The Times of India in a chat.