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Cricket News: Sanju Samson is “wasting good form” – Ian Bishop | Ian Bishop says Samson is hurting chances of national call-up

Former West Indies cricketer and veteran broadcaster Ian Bishop has opined that stylish Rajasthan Royals batsman Sanju Samson is wasting good form and opportunity to score big runs that could pave way for an international call-up.

Bishop made his assessment on Samson on ESPNCricinfo following yet another frustrating knock by Samson against RCB, where he played some delightful strokes before giving his wicket away tamely.

On what was a turgid surface, Samson three audacious sixes and a four in his 21-ball 27 before he fell to Wanindu Hasaranga following a fatal attempt to reverse-sweep the wrist spinner.

He had made the same mistake on the previous delivery as well.

“That Sanju is wasting good form and good opportunity to score runs to press for an international recall, to lead his team when Jos Buttler doesn’t score. It’s not that Sanju’s out of form. But that’s a match-up with Wanindu Hasaranga and him, and he should have known better. He got out of the blocks quite nicely,” said Bishop.

“I’m a Sanju Samson fan, been that way for years now, [but] he’s wasting good form by shot selection.”

Ian Bishop

Daniel Vettori in agreement with Ian Bishop about Sanju Samson

Former New Zealand cricketer Daniel Vettori agreed with Bishop’s statement.

The former left-arm spinner feels that Samson is in a way a victim of his own talent. According to Vettori, the game looks very easy whenever Samson is batting, and perhaps, a sense of complacency creeps into his game, which ultimately leads to his demise.

“It feels like the game is too easy for him, so ‘I’m going to try something different, I’m going to try and make sure I can play every shot in the book’. He is at his best when he’s striking down the ground. He’s a joy to watch when he’s playing that well. But everything looks a little bit easy and sometimes it feels like he isn’t in the moment, and then he’s out,” Vettori said. 

“We talk about this more often than not, probably, about a Sanju Samson innings, where he’s 30 off 20 or 30 off 18, and it’s been brilliant. But he doesn’t actually carry the team on to the performance that they need,” he added.

Hasaranga dismissed Samson for the fifth time in T20s

Prior to yesterday’s fixture, Hasaranga had dismissed Samson as many as four times while conceding just 18.

Vettori felt that Samson should have respected the fact Hasaranga has had a lid over him in the past and that he should have seen the threat off.

“As I’ve said before, the game just comes too easy for him. ‘I’ve missed it this time, so I’ll try it again and I’ll make sure I have it this time’. Hasaranga was a good match-up for him, so he almost needed to respect the fact that Hasaranga is such a good bowler and it’s not going to be that easy. But it looked like Sanju just thought it would be easy.” Vettori said.

Vettori, however, was full of praise for the Royals’ skipper, stating that he is a dream player to have in any team considering the fact that he can counter any sort of bowling.

“He’s the sort of player that you want in your team, because there’s the match-winner and there’s a player who can take on any type of bowling, and he’s fearless. That’s a remarkable characteristic for a player that hasn’t played a lot of international cricket,” he signed off.

Samson has thus far scored 228 runs in eight innings at 32.57 and a strike rate of 165.22.

Written by Yash Mittal. Follow Yash on Twitter today.