Aakash Chopra highlights a key change that can be introduced to unleash the best in Sanju Samson

India’s middle-order woes continued to persist and against the West Indies, things seemed a lot more disoriented as the Men in Blue chose to play with their second-string side. India secured the Test and the ODI series without much fuss despite a late scare in the latter but the T20I series exposed the skeleton of the Indian engine room as they could barely find any respite whatsoever.

Sanju Samson was one of the regulars of the T20I series and yet his returns were bare minimum. However, a former Indian opener Aakash Chopra believes that the wicket-keeping batter can very well still be a game-changer only if the Indian management agrees to shuffle his batting position and bring him higher up the order. Chopra brought out a Rohit Sharma-analogy to try and liken the situation of Samson to the Indian captain’s resurgence after he was promoted to the opening spot.

Talking on his Youtube channel, Chopra said, “You will have to bat Sanju Samson up the order if you have to get the best out of him, irrespective of the format. You will be able to do justice to his talent only if you can bat him up the order. Maybe a very similar case with Rohit Sharma.”

He further added, “When Rohit Sharma plays, he plays so beautifully and this was his story earlier as well. His numbers were not that good at the start but the team persisted. It seemed like the guy had a lot of potential and that today's potential will be converted to performance tomorrow. I feel we are trying to make him succeed in the lower-middle order but the chances are slightly less because all his numbers due to which he gets selected are either as an opener or at No. 3. His numbers have never been good at No. 4 or lower.”