Gautam gambhir and suryakumar yadav ptiImage Credit Source: PTI
A question has been continuously arising since the selection of Team India for the Asia Cup 2025- who will be in the opening? If Shubman Gill opens, will Sanju Samson be excluded? With the start of the tournament, the answer will be found. But before that, common fans and big stalwarts and experts are also giving advice to Team India and Sunil Gavaskar has also given a similar suggestion. His clear message is that a player like Samson cannot be seated outside after choosing.
Former Indian captain and great batsman Gavaskar gave this advice to Team India while talking to the media just before this tournament starting on 9 September in UAE. The news agency PTI quoted Gavaskar as saying that Sanju Samson should be selected in the playing-11, even if he has to change his batting position.
Sunil Gavaskar believes that it is not right to sit out after choosing a batsman like Samson in the main team. He advocated feeding the star wicketkeeper-batsman on number-3 and said, “I think it is a good headache for any selection committee that you have two very capable batsmen and then you also have a player like Sanju Samson, who can probably bat in number three and also come to number-6 and also appear to come to number-6.”
Former Indian opener Gavaskar also described backup wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma as a good contender for the role of Finisher but described Samson as the first choice in playing-11. According to Gavaskar, “Samson will get preference on Jitesh for the first one or two matches. Then he will depend on his form in the tournament. But I think that will happen.”
In fact, for the last one year, Sanju Samson was the only one who was doing the responsibility of opening with Abhishek Sharma in the T20 team and he also performed tremendously. He got this role in lieu of star batsmen like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill, who were engaged in Tests and ODI cricket during this time. But after Gill got a place in the team for the Asia Cup and after being made the vice-captain on it, the situation changed and hence there has been the most discussion about Samson’s place.
