India vs West Indies: Sanju Samson excited ahead of the second T20I at his home ground

India’s three-match Twenty20 International series against the West Indies got off to a blockbuster start at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. On a road masquerading as a Hyderabad pitch, batsmen from both sides enjoyed their time out in the middle as more than 400 runs were scored and a plethora of records were broken and created.

One of the major talking points leading into the series between India and the West Indies was regarding the form of Rishabh Pant and whether Sanju Samson should be given the chance in place of the Delhi southpaw. Samson, who had pushed his case to a national call-up courtesy his whirlwind double century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, has been consigned to the bench since the Bangladesh series.

Matters came to a head when he was unceremoniously dropped from the squad for the West Indies series and it was only Shikhar Dhawan’s injury that led to his call-up. The wicketkeeper-batsman was once again ignored in the first T20I; a decision that left the social media outrage to the hilt.

Sanju Samson is, however, keeping himself in high spirits and with him alongside Team India landing in his home state Kerala for the second fixture, he took to his Twitter account to post a photo of himself where he can be seen practising catching and captioned it as, “Here we come THIRUVANANTHAPURAM..”

Here we come THIRUVANANTHAPURAM..
☺️🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/T3ZKpXQw1Z

— Sanju Samson (@IamSanjuSamson) December 7, 2019

It is unlikely that Sanju Samson will play in the second T20I

That said, it is extremely unlikely that Sanju Samson will get a chance to play on his home turf in the second game. Pant played a decent counterattacking knock- 18 off 9 balls- where he scored a few lusty blows to relieve the pressure of Virat Kohli and is likely to retain his position.

However, all is not lost for Sanju Samson. With Pant not being in good form, an opportunity to turn up for the national side can come anytime. In the past, pundits like VVS Laxman had said that Pant needs to perform in the opportunities that he gets, else Samson will replace him.

Meanwhile, Team India will look to seal the deal in Thiruvananthapuram while the visitors will hope they can squash the seven-match losing streak and enforce a series decider in Mumbai.

Watch – Dale Steyn’s cheeky run-out attempt