Rishabh Pant has been facing a lot of backlash for his constant selection in the Indian team over Sanju Samson. The southpaw has failed to fire with the bat in his last nine innings across the two white-ball formats having scores of 10, 15, 11, 6, 6, 3, 9, 9 and 27. On the other hand, the team management has made Sanju Samson warm the bench to make way for Pant time and again. Commenting on the issue, former Pakistan Cricketer Danish Kaneria lashed out at the Indian Cricket Board.
Kaneria said that Pant is not a white ball cricketer, adding Samson needs more opportunities. He further said that the team management has tried Pant everywhere and asked what did Sanju Samson do wrong by scoring 36 runs in the second ODI of the series against New Zealand?
“India should accept the fact that Rishabh Pant is not a white-ball cricketer. They have tried him at every position in the order, just so that he can score runs. But what about Sanju Samson? Did he do anything wrong by scoring 36 runs?,” he said on his Youtube channel.
“From fans to former players, everyone has expressed displeasure over this. All this is very demoralizing for Sanju Samson, as he is being treated like an average cricketer,” Kaneria added.
The former Pakistan spinner also said that management didn’t treat Deepak Hooda well and now the batter has lost all his confidence.
“Deepak Hooda was dancing when the ball started to seam. He didn’t understand what was happening. The team management dropped him when he was doing well, shattering his confidence. Now he has been asked to play in a tough situation where he doesn’t know what to do.”
Sanju Samson averages 44 with the bat in T20Is in 2022
Notably, Samson led the Rajasthan franchise to the final of the Indian T20 League 2022. He played just six T20Is this year scoring 179 runs at an average of 44.75 and a strike rate of 158.40. On the other hand, Pant played 25 T20Is scoring 364 runs at an average of 21.41 and a strike rate of 132.84.
Despite his good performances in the limited opportunities he got, Samson eventually found himself out of contention for the 20-20 World Cup and was picked again for the New Zealand tour where he warmed the bench for T20Is. He got the chance to play in the ODI series and played a vital knock of 36 off 38 balls in the only opportunity he got.
