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Irfan Pathan Questions Form of Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill; Criticizes Samson’s Exclusion
Irfan Pathan, India vs South Africa T20: Irfan Pathan has questioned the preference given to Shubman Gill over Sanju Samson. Pathan says that there isn't much time left for the World Cup, and if the team needs to make changes, now is the right time.
A former Indian all-rounder, Irfan Pathan, expressed surprise at the current form of Indian T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav and vice-captain Shubman Gill. Irfan Pathan also criticized the Indian team management for not selecting pugilist wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson in the Indian cricket squad and giving opening opportunities to Gill instead of Samson.
While commentating during the match, Pathan said, "The question that will remain in the Indian management's mind is that Shubman Gill was brought into the team in place of Sanju Samson. He was then immediately made the vice-captain. Gill has a strike rate of 140, and Sanju has a strike rate of 147. Now the question arises: how long before the World Cup do you want to make a change? Because if there's time to make a change, it's now. But we've already decided that Gill, not Samson, is our player."
Not only this, Pathan also shared a post on Instagram after the match. Pathan wrote, "The form of Shubman Gill and Surya Kumar? 13 full tosses while bowling today. How can we deny this? These are questions that Team India will have to answer going forward. Hopefully, they will answer them with positive results."
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Gill has been failing series after series. Despite this, Gautam Gambhir is continuously giving him opportunities. He is being forced into the T20 team, despite his statistics appearing to be even worse than an average player. In this insistence on fitting Gill in, the team management is risking the career of wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson. Since 'seizing' Samson's spot as an opener, Gill has played 14 innings and scored 263 runs at a poor average of just 20. Surprisingly, in his last 17 innings, Gill has not scored a single half-century, with his highest score being 47, which came against Pakistan in the Asia Cup.
Reflecting on Samson's career, Sanju Samson has performed exceptionally well as an opener since the T20 World Cup 2024. As an opening batsman, Samson scored three centuries in a year, but Shubman Gill's return to the team has usurped his opening slot. As an opener, Samson has scored 512 runs in 14 matches at an average of 39.38. During this period his strike rate has been 182.20.
