Cricket News: Sanju Samson again overlooked - bad luck or lack of opportunities?

He has served as the franchise captain for the past two seasons, leading them to the 2022 championship game.

Sanju Samson IPL 2022 

With the bat, he has maintained his IPL record over the years, scoring 484 runs in 2021 and 458 runs in 2022, with some ups and downs. 

Later on, we shall return to those run-charts.

Samson is Kerala's top cricketer outside of the IPL. He is the center of attention in domestic cricket, regardless of the format. Despite S Sreesanth's fireworks, no other cricketer from that state has received much attention and controversy. 

During India's white-ball leg of their 2014 tour of England, did you know that Sanju Samson received his first call-up for the international game of cricket? There was a lot of admiration for the Indian squad as MS Dhoni, and the new team manager Ravi Shastri hit the goals. Samson dominated the IPL for two seasons, scoring 545 runs between 2013 and 2014.

Cynics might counter that Samson and Rahul are no longer vying for the same position. Yes, Rishabh Pant is more the name that springs to mind as a keeper-batter. In this regard, 2018 served as Pant's breakout year. 

His 684 runs in the IPL and scorching performances in the Ranji Trophy boosted him just as India began looking for a keeping-batsman to succeed Dhoni. Pant followed it up in 2019 with an additional 488 runs in the IPL and a World ODI Cup ticket. 

Samson scored 783 runs for the two IPL seasons. Nearly 400 runs outperformed him by Pant's 1172 runs. The selectors' decision was not difficult at the time.

But this is merely the beginning of the issue. The second relates to Samson's opportunities, which he gave but didn't result in anything. Take the 2020–21 tour to Australia by India. Pant was unpopular in that particular series. Samson played like a pure batsman, not keeping wickets as Rahul did. Samson, meanwhile, was given a chance to bat at position four in all three T20Is. He batted in those games' seventh, twelfth, and ninth overs. The outcome put, 48 runs off 34 balls over three innings is not good enough.

Samson made his white-ball debut in 2015, and since then, players like Rahul, Pant, and Hardik Pandya have advanced past him in the standings. He can now see that people like Iyer, SKY, and even Ishan Kishan and Deepak Hooda are rising above him. Samson is in fierce competition with at least three other players for the one coveted slot in the Indian eleven at any time.

What has Samson done to put himself ahead of the competition? And, honestly, who is to blame?