Sanju Samson has the clarity he needs after he was left out from the playing XI and then from the squad that tours Zimbabwe for three T20Is, India head coach Gautam Gambhir has said. Samson was the Player of the Tournament in the T20 World Cup in March with scores of 97 not out, 89 and 89 in the last three matches. He also scored two centuries in the IPL, but following scores of 5, 0 and 1 on the tours of Ireland and England, he was left out for the 15-year-old prodigy Vaibjhav Sooryavanshi. While Samson remains a part of the squad in England where India now trail 2-0, he has been left out entirely from the squad for the Zimbabwe T20Is later this month.
"The clarity that should have been given to Sanju Samson, he has got from me," Gambhir said after the third T20I at Trent Bridge. "And that conversation is between a head coach and a player. That contents of the conversation we will obviously not tell you about.
"As far as clarity goes, we are absolutely clear that Sanju… what he had done for India during the World Cup has been phenomenal, and sometimes you just have to look at the form as well of a certain player. And there is no hard and fast rule that he cannot make a comeback in this series.
"And more importantly, ultimately international cricket is about results. Whatever we feel is the best combination to give us the results, we play that combination, we play that playing XI. That is what I've always been a big believer of: that everyone needs to earn their place. Everyone needs to earn the right to play for India."
The pressure on the selectors and team management has mounted after they have left out both the captain, Suryakumar Yadav, and the Player of the Tournament from that World Cup-winning squad. They have also lost all four of their completed matches since the World Cup, including a 2-0 clean sweep against Ireland, an opposition they had never previously lost an international match to.
Gambhir said that while India needed to get better at game awareness and adaptability to conditions, the results were also indicative of the time that the T20I side needs given they are hitting reset after a dominant run. Before the setbacks in Ireland and England, India had gone unbeaten for 16 consecutive series or tournaments culminating in the first successful defence of a T20 World Cup by any team.
"Conditions matter a little but if you see there are changes in the T20 side," Gambhir said. "When you go to reset a side, sometimes you get such performances. There are a lot of changes from the XI that played the T20 World Cup final to now. Be it the captain, be it the opening batsman. There is no Hardik Pandya, there is no Jasprit Bumrah.
"When you go for that reset, it takes a bit of time. If you see, a 15-year-old is opening, Prince Yadav is in his second T20I, Harshit Rana is coming back from an injury. We ultimately look only at results, and no doubt results are important in international cricket, but we have to be practical as well. Sometimes you give players time to develop. England is a high-quality side. If you put players in against such teams, you have to give them time to develop. Because after a reset, things take time."
Gambhir, however, did stress on the importance of adapting to the conditions and reading situations better. "I think that it is important to assess the conditions, no doubt about that," Gambhir said, "but it is also important [to know] how to read the game. That is equally important as well… sometimes it's a small thing, but breeze can play a huge part as well. Sometimes one side where the dimensions are much bigger than the other side… that is important as well. So these small-small things in a T20 game can make a huge difference.
"And sometimes what happens is, when everyone in a batting line-up starts playing high risk, high reward, sometimes these things can happen. Probably the middle order, the experienced guys who have played enough international cricket, need to adapt and probably play according to the situation as well.
"We did that during the World Cup as well. Our top three were firing and we wanted to play that high risk, high reward, but then we had [Nos.] 4 or 5 who were still able to build the innings and probably anchor the innings as well, and that is something that we lacked today."
