Opinion | Just drop Sanju Samson from the T20 World Cup already

Sanju Samson should not play in the T20 World Cup starting next February. The selectors, if they are in a generous mood, could make the Keralite a squad player, like in the 2024 edition, when he came home from the Caribbean as a World Cup winner despite not playing.

But if he isn't picked at all, who can argue? How can a player who gets dropped repeatedly from a non-World Cup XI claim a spot in the big event? And when he isn't picked for the home World Cup, Sanju should not expect a 10-minute pep talk explaining why the other wicketkeeper batter was playing because Rohit Sharma isn't the skipper anymore.

On Thursday, Sanju was not part of the India XI against South Africa in the second match in New Chandigarh, warming the bench for the fifth T20I in a row. Unless South Africa go 0-3 down, allowing Gautam Gambhir to tinker with his arsenal, there is little chance for Sanju to get a look in.

Even if he did, Sanju need not dream about the top-order, a sanctuary where he has shone for more than a decade. That much was made clear by captain Suryakumar Yadav, who said the other day that "... when he (Sanju) came into the circuit, he batted higher up the order. Now, the thing is, other than the openers, I feel everyone has to be very flexible... He was ready to bat at any number".

The rationale, though the team management never cares to explain it in as many words, is that Jitesh Sharma, who has taken Sanju's spot in the XI is better suited for the lower middle order that requires facing 10 balls, or 15 on a good day, and not feeling hard done by if that opportunity doesn't arrive at all. For Sharma, that should be perfectly alright because he's used to playing such roles in club cricket.

But how should Sanju feel about all this? "Sanju got a raw deal," said South African great Shaun Pollock. ".. you know, those opportunities are often created by people being injured or being rested, whatever it may be, and players step up and perform. I suppose you kind of need to look at Shubman Gill from a different perspective now. I think he is almost being elevated to the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. And when they came back into teams, where did they go? They went back into their position. It wasn’t a case of shifting them down," Pollock said in an interview recently.

Gill, the young superstar, who is being nurtured as the all-format run machine, displaced Sanju from the opener role. That transition happened at the Asia Cup, where Sanju found himself shuttling across the batting order and getting relegated to No 8 on the odd occasion.

Before Gill took his place, Sanju was guilty of being inconsistent. Those who argue that Sanju was India's highest T20I run getter in 2024, scoring three centuries, including two against South Africa, should also remember that he made 26, 5, 3, 1, 16 against England earlier this year.

But wait, Gill hasn't scored a fifty in 15 T20I innings, and he's got just one hundred in 34 tries? Since he took Sanju's place, Gill has made a high score of 47, and amassed a grand total of 263 runs from 14 innings at an average of 23. Oh, he was out for a golden duck today. But he's India's Test skipper and you don't drop skippers. Because if you drop skippers, Suryakumar Yadav must be in trouble because he's got one fifty in 20 innings. So, let's just spare everyone else the trouble and drop Sanju.