The questions around Sanju Samson‘s place in India’s T20I side have resurfaced after the wicketkeeper-batter endured another modest outing in the series opener against the West Indies, but former India opener Aakash Chopra believes dropping him for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is not an option at this stage.Samson has managed scores of 11, 2, 7 and 9 in his last four T20I innings, including a five-over contest against Japan. The recent run has come after he struck back-to-back fifties in the T20I series against Afghanistan.However, Sooryavanshi’s emergence has added another dimension to the selection debate. The teenage batter opened alongside Abhishek Sharma during the Asian Games, with Samson batting at No. 3. VVS Laxman was India’s head coach for the tournament, with Gautam Gambhir occupied with the ODI team against the West Indies.For the ongoing series, India have returned to the opening combination of Samson and Abhishek, the pair that featured in the team’s T20 World Cup-winning campaign. Samson, however, managed only nine in the first T20I against the West Indies in Lucknow.Chopra has backed the Kerala batter to retain his place, arguing that the team cannot keep questioning his position after every failure.Speaking in a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ the former India opener dismissed the prospect of Sooryavanshi replacing Samson for the second T20I.“Since Bihar is in the neighborhood, there is talk of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Will there be a chance of him playing? No, it won’t be there. You will have to agree that it cannot happen that he plays now, and if we start saying this about Sanju Samson after every match, then we are damned. How will you manage cricket then? Just don’t go there,” he said.Chopra also discussed the possibility of India bringing Nitish Kumar Reddy into the playing XI, admitting that he would like to see the all-rounder given a chance but was unsure whether the team management shared that view.“I seriously think about Nitish Kumar Reddy for sure. However, I can’t do that either after the first match. I wanted you to play Nitish from the start itself, because how will you prepare him? However, that’s my thinking and might be your thinking as well, but the Indian team is not thinking like that,” he observed.India head into the second T20I in Ranchi on Friday, October 9, with a 1-0 lead in the five-match series after securing an emphatic eight-wicket victory in Lucknow.For Samson, the immediate task is to turn his start into a substantial contribution and quieten the growing criticism. He was dropped after three failures during India’s tour of the UK, having been named Player of the Tournament at the T20 World Cup.With Sooryavanshi continuing to attract attention, Samson will be keen to make the most of his opportunity. While Chopra has played down the prospect of an immediate change, the debate over India’s opening combination is unlikely to disappear if the wicketkeeper-batter’s struggles continue.
