IND vs SL 2021: “Some nice memories and some bitter ones” - Sanju Samson reflects on Sri Lanka tour
Team India’s wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson has shared a picture with teammates from the Sri Lanka series along with a message summarizing the tour.
India ended their tour of Sri Lanka on Thursday with a seven-wicket loss in the final T20I. Forced to play with just five batsmen in the last two matches owing to the COVID-19 situation in the camp, India ended up losing the T20I series 1-2.
As per latest reports, after Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal and Krishanappa Gowtham have also tested COVID-positive.
On Friday, Samson took to his official Twitter account to post a picture in which he is seen with skipper Shikhar Dhawan, Navdeep Saini and Sandeep Warrier. Along with the image, Samson shared a philosophical caption and wrote:
“Some nice memories and some bitter ones, that’s the way of life and this wonderful game!! Respecting and being grateful to everything happening around… The JOURNEY continues.”
India got off to an impressive start during their tour of Sri Lanka, winning the first two ODIs and thus clinching the series. However, they made drastic changes to their playing XI for the final game and lost the dead rubber.
In the T20Is, they again won the first match but after Krunal tested positive ahead of the second T20I, all their plans went haywire.
Sanju Samson had a tough tour of Sri Lanka
On a personal note, Samson had a disappointing tour. He started off with 46 in the third ODI, his debut game in the format. However, he struggled in the T20I series, registering scores of 27, 7 and 0. Samson was brutally trolled for his failures on social media.
Cricket experts also expressed disappointment with Samson’s performance on the tour. Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt described him as a lazy cricketer. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Butt stated:
“Sanju Samson seems like a lazy batsman to me. It looked like he had a very casual approach. When you know that there are only five batsmen in the team and you are one of them, and two have already got out, you should have been more careful. But I did not see that effort from Samson.”
Former India batsman Aakash Chopra also felt that Samson would regret not scoring runs on the tour. He opined on his YouTube channel:
“We always say about Sanju Samson that he is a very talented player, looks very attractive while batting and so on. In Thursday’s match, he came in to bat in the fifth over. He should have scored runs. Samson played four consecutive matches. The other youngsters were in and out of the playing XI but Samson got a longer run without a gap. He played the last ODI and all three T20Is. Sanju Samson will regret this, he let a great opportunity slip.”
In 10 T20I matches so far, Samson has only managed 117 runs at an average of 11.70 and a strike rate of 110.37.