‘It's either nothing or everything’ – Gautam Gambhir questions Sanju Samson’s mindset after the latter’s inconsistency in IPL 2021

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has opined that Sanju Samson’s inconsistency is pulling him down. Samson yet again started the Indian Premier League with exceptional innings in the first match, but hasn’t been able to continue his form with the bat since then. Gambhir pointed out that his fluctuating outcomes could be because of a mindset issue. 

While talking about Samson, Gambhir noted there has been an issue of consistency with his batting. He made a point that Samson always starts with a big score but then slowly his runs start to dry. The Rajasthan Royals captain made 119 in the first match, but since then has scored four, one, and 21 in the next three innings. 

While speaking during an ESPNCricinfo show, the former Indian batsman said that brilliant players, like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and AB de Villiers are always able to follow up their big scores of 80 with another 30 or 40 runs. However, Gambhir mentioned that with Sanju, it’s either a big score or nothing.

If there is so much fluctuation then somewhere it’s an issue of the mindset: Gautam Gambhir

“If you look over the last many IPLs, consistency is an issue. He starts very well but it’s either nothing or everything. So your graph shouldn’t fluctuate this much. A good player’s graph always remains in the middle. If you look at Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, or AB de Villiers, who are all brilliant players, if they make 80-odd runs they don’t score 0, 1, or 10 in the next few innings but contribute with a knock of 30 or 40-odd runs. But if you look at Sanju Samson’s graph, either he scores an 80-90 or nothing at all. If there is so much fluctuation then somewhere it’s an issue of the mindset,” said Gambhir.

The criticism towards Samson’s batting started after people started analyzing the way he scores his runs. Last season, he started the 2020 edition, with two big 80+ scores, but then managed to end up with only 375 runs. Samson’s batting talent has been praised by experts around the world, but he has a problem with scoring them consistently. 

Gambhir further said that Rajasthan Royals skipper Samson has to improve his thinking and should be able to adjust to the changing conditions and situations. The former IPL champion said that as a batsman he should be able to change gears and also make adjustments with the changing match situation. 

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