DUBAI, UAE — It’s never easy to be a peripheral cricketer on the Indian national team, and for Sanju Samson, the pressure is higher than ever. The delicate interactions between the players during their nightly net practice at the ICC Cricket Academy Arena in Dubai before the Asia Cup gave a clear picture of how the team management was thinking and the difficult decisions they would have to make.
Samson was the first person to get to the practice nets. He immediately started doing solo wicket-keeping drills with fielding instructor T. Dilip. He was really focused, and others even praised him for making a full-stretched diving catch. At this point, head coach Gautam Gambhir stepped up and talked to him for three minutes. We don’t know what they were talking about, but it seemed like it was more about Samson’s batting than his keeping.
The story of the practice changed when Jitesh Sharma, another candidate for the wicket-keeper’s place, walked onto the field with confidence. Jitesh, who has been doing great as a finisher for his club in the IPL, appeared calm and confident of himself. He was one of the first batsmen to take shifts in the nets with Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, and Tilak Varma, which shows how important he was to the batting plans.
During a telling time, as the main batting group was going full speed, Samson quietly left the nets in his batting gear. Later, he was seen sitting alone under a palm tree outside the dressing room clubhouse, looking quite lonely.
As the practice went on, vice-captain Shubman Gill, captain Suryakumar Yadav, and Abhishek Sharma all batted several times, but Samson was not in the lineup. He finally returned to the nets, but since he knew he wouldn’t get a chance, he just sat on an ice box and watched his teammates. The sight of him sitting there while Shivam Dube suited up for a second batting session after a round of bowling was a strong sign of where he stood in the pecking order.
When Samson finally got a chance, it was at the end of the session. His first delivery, a half-tracker from a net bowler, missed. It was a moment that appeared to sum up his whole day.
The practice session also gave us some information about what happened to Rinku Singh. He didn’t even bother to put on pads at first, which is a clear hint that he isn’t in the team’s plans right now. He only got few throwdowns from non-specialist support staff at the very end, which made it even more clear that he was at the bottom of the pecking order.
It is becoming more and more evident from the practice session that Gautam Gambhir and the rest of the team management are putting more emphasis on batting depth and all-rounders. Some analysts, like Sunil Gavaskar, had suggested that it would be hard to fit both Samson and Tilak Varma into the playing eleven because of this desire. Gambhir seems to be leaning toward the combo of Jitesh Sharma as a finisher and Shivam Dube as an all-rounder who can hit the ball hard.
In the past, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rahul Dravid were coaches, net sessions didn’t give much away about the final playing XI. This session was very different from before. It looks like you get what you get with Gautam Gambhir, and everyone can see the hierarchy.