Opener Shikhar Dhawan was on Wednesday ruled out of the T20 International series against the West Indies due to a knee injury, making way for Sanju Samson, who was dropped without getting a chance in the recent series against Bangladesh.
Dhawan suffered a deep cut on his left knee during a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game against Maharashtra in Surat, the BCCI said in a statement.
“The BCCI Medical Team assessed him on Tuesday to review the healing of his wound. The BCCI Medical Team has suggested that Dhawan needs some more time for his stitches to come off and his wound to heal completely,” the BCCI revealed.
“The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Sanju Samson as Dhawan’s replacement for the T20I series,” it added.
The T20 series against the West Indies gets underway on December 6 in Hyderabad. The other two matches will be played in Thiruvananthapuram (December 8) and Mumbai (December 11).
The 33-year-old Dhawan is expected to be fit for the one-dayers against the Caribbean team but is under tremendous pressure due to his patchy recent form. The three-match ODI series against the West Indies starts on December 15 in Chennai.
team is priority
While the likes of Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir have time and again praised the talent he possesses, critics have often said that consistency is an issue with Sanju Samson. And with head coach Ravi Shastri making it clear that the spot of a batsman who can keep is still open for the World T20 in Australia next year, the question on everyone’s mind is if Samson can be the answer.
After replacing injured Dhawan, Sanju said that while he is open to keeping wickets, consistency isn’t something that he loses sleep over. For the 25-year-old, it is more about playing match-winning knocks and seeing his team finish on top than personal glory.
“I have never thought of that (consistency) as an issue. What I have understood is that I am a bit different type of a player where I just feel that I should go and dominate the bowlers. So, when I have a style and I am looking to dominate the bowlers, it can happen…if I go behind consistency, I will lose my style of batting. I don’t want to change my style of playing to bring in consistency.
“I like to keep things as simple as possible and when I get the opportunity I look to score big. If I get five innings, I want to score big in one or two innings and win matches for my team. Consistency in my innings won’t win matches for my team. It is more important to play an outstanding innings to win my team games. I go behind that kind of idea,” he explained.
Coming to the next most important aspect — keeping wickets. Samson says that he has never shied away from the responsibility and it is the team management which makes those calls.
“I have been keeping wickets in white-ball cricket for Kerala for the last five or six years and have also kept in the Ranji Trophy format. I keep that as an open thing. Whatever my team requires, I do it accordingly. In the IPL, whenever my team wanted me to keep I did. But they at time felt I could contribute more on the field, so I did that. I prepare for myself both as a keeper and fielder because you never know what the team is looking at,” he pointed.