T20 World Cup 2024: Sanju Samson put in India's reserve list by former Australian legend

Former Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Tom Moody has put Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson into the reserves list for India's ICC T20 World Cup 2024 squad. 

At the moment, there is a tussle going on between Sanju Samson, Rishabh Pant, and KL Rahul for the wicket-keeper batsman's spot for the Men in Blue.

This is also the most talked about department of the team as the Ajit Agarkar-led chief selection committee will hope to have a capable wicket-keeper, who can provide solidity from the middle-order. 

Can Sanju Samson fit into the lower middle order? 

That's what Sanju Samson lacks. The Royals captain, who has scored over 300 runs from 9 IPL 2024 matches so far in the season, is best known for his performances and ability to bat well from the top order.

He comes into bat at number 3 for RR and it is a spot in the Indian team, which is already filled up by RCB stalwart Virat Kohli. 

Although Sanju Samson's performances in IPL 2024 have been very good it's his batting position that is posing a problem for him.

At numbers 4 and 5, there will be either Suryakumar Yadav/Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya/Ravindra Jadeja respectively. This means, the selected wicket-keeper batsman will be coming out to bat at number 7 and won't get many balls to face. 

Because of that, the wicket-keeper batsman will have the pressure to start striking the ball from the word go. That means the number 7 spot will require someone who enters the middle with the thought process of smashing the ball all over the park in the death overs. And that's what Sanju Samson lacks. 

The 29-year-old is more than capable of building his innings from the top order but when it comes to smashing from ball 1 and scoring 20-30 off 9-10 balls, Sanju falls short. With Virat Kohli, Surya and Shivam Dube almost certain to appear in the top and middle order, it will be interesting to see where exactly Sanju fits in. 

Tom Moody picks Rishabh Pant as first choice keeper

While speaking to ESPNcricinfo last night, Tom Moody pointed out the same thing about Sanju Samson. He snubbed Sanju and picked Rishabh Pant as his first-choice keeper batsman and chose KL Rahul as his second option. Moody chose Rahul because of his versatility to come out as an opener, at number 3, 5 and even 7. 

Sanju Samson for the World Cup? @TomMoodyCricket makes a tough call 💁‍♂️#TimeOut | #LSGvRR pic.twitter.com/w7QkS7ulMO

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) April 28, 2024

"He's on the flight but he is in the reserve list for me. It's a very difficult decision. I think it's out of all the sort of disciplines in the squad, I think this is the hardest one to actually nail down."

"For me, Pant is the first choice wicket-keeper batter and I've selected KL Rahul as my option purely because I feel he has the ability to bat from 1 to 6 with a lot more ease and he's done before successfully. If I'm looking for a specialist at 1,2 or 3, purely that's where Sanju jumps out. Very tough call on Sanju because he is a high-quality player." - Tom Moody said via ESPNcricinfo Timeout show.