"Every time Samson is not in the squad, we talk about him, but he has not cashed in the opportunities he has availed" - Parthiv Patel
Former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel recently spoke about Sanju Samson's string of poor scores in the ongoing West Indies tour. The Men in Blue succumbed to a two-wicket loss in the second T20I at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday, with Samson scoring just seven runs.
The ongoing wicketkeeper conundrum, fuelled by injuries to Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul, has kept Samson in the hunt for a spot in the ODI World Cup squad. However, the Kerala-born player has not been able to make the most of his chances on the Caribbean tour.
He scored a fifty in the third ODI but has only recorded 19 runs across two matches in the T20I series so far.
Samson was dismissed by Akeal Hosein for 7 in the second ODI. He came down the track but missed the turning ball completely, resulting in a stumping by Nicholas Pooran.
In that context, Parthiv Patel opined that Samson's time might run out soon.
"Every time India loses, we look at the negative points. Throughout the white-ball series, there has been talk about the need for batters to bat long and it is something that has been missing so far. Every time Samson is not in the squad, we talk about him, but he has not cashed in on the opportunities he has availed of so far. Probably time is running out for him, maybes yes or maybe no," he said on Cricbuzz.
There has been a lot of talk surrounding Samson warming the bench and not being given a place in the playing XI. Patel, however, believes the opportunities have come, but without any results.
"Samson has been getting a lot of opportunities, to be honest," he said. "He is just not making the most of the opportunities that he is getting. There was only one batter who looked comfortable and that was Tilak Varma."
Samson's T20I batting average has plummeted following yet another poor outing. He has scored 320 runs in 18 innings, averaging only 18.82, with a strike rate of 131.15.
"He showed the range he has" - Parthiv Patel on Tilak Varma
Tilak Varma, on his maiden international tour, has been Team India's best player in the T20I series by a distance. Building on the start (39 off 22) he got in the series opener, the southpaw scored a fifty in the second T20I. Tilak ultimately perished for 51 off 41 balls, and Parthiv Patel praised his knock - which included five fours and one six.
"The way Tilak rotated the strike, the way he used the reverse sweep against spinners, the way he scored sixes over covers, through this he showed the range he has," he said.
West Indies have attained a near-unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match affair. The Rovman Powell-led side endured some nervy moments towards the end of the contest but crossed the line in the penultimate over.
Parthiv lauded West Indies' disciplined bowling and fielding efforts that restricted India to 152-7 in the first innings.
"West Indies were very disciplined with their bowling, they did not try to do anything extra. They kept hitting the length, they backed themselves and the fielding was excellent as well," he said.
Highlighting Kyle Mayers' direct hit to dismiss Suryakumar Yadav in the fourth over, Parthiv continued:
"When someone like Suryakumar Yadav gets runout with such brilliant fielding, it makes a huge difference. We do not usually talk about West Indies being disciplined in their bowling and fielding unit, but today they were."
India and West Indies will face each other in the third T20I at the same venue on Tuesday.