'Neither the strike rate nor the average looks very good...'- Former India cricketer's strong statements on star cricketer Ahead of Asia Cup 2025

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has made some big statements about Sanju Samson and his role in Team India. Keeping an eye on the upcoming Asia Cup 2025, Chopra expressed his thoughts, focusing on the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Currently, Team India has multiple contenders in the form of wicketkeeper-batsmen like Sanju Samson, Jitesh Sharma, Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant, Jitesh Sharma, or even KL Rahul. Pant is now out of the field because of injury. Chopra's primary concern is about Samson's batting stats. The cricketer from Kerala has been effective as an opener or in the top order. But as a middle-order batter, his stats are not impressive. BCCI included Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, and Sanju Samson, three natural openers, in the Asia Cup 2025 setup.

There are chances that the team management can send Sharma and Gill as the opening pair and Samson as a middle-order batter, where he struggled in the past. Even in the Kerala Cricket League (KCL 2025) with Kochi Blue Tigers, Samson missed his flair when he came to bat from the middle order and started to score tons of runs as soon as he started to play as an opener, which is his comfort zone. 

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Reasons behind Chopra's concern for Samson 

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra opined, "Sanju Samson is the first contender (2026 T20I World Cup) because he played the last series. He has struck three centuries in the last 12 matches. He is also a part of the team at the moment. So, of course, he will be the first guy to talk about. If we see his numbers at Nos. 1 to 3 in all T20s, he has scored more than 6000 runs at a strike rate of 140 and an average of 33. These are really good numbers at Nos. 1 to 3." 

He continued, "So Sanju Samson is a real contender if you want a keeper in the top three. When I look at his numbers at Nos. 4 to 7, he has played 98 matches and has an average of 20 and a strike rate of 126. Neither the strike rate nor the average looks very good at Nos. 4 to 7. You would have kept Sanju as a frontrunner at the top. However, suddenly, when you change his number, he will go down in the list."