Sanju Samson’s Form, Tilak Varma’s Approach in Focus as Shreyas Seeks First Win

MANCHESTER: With Vaibhav Sooryavanshi breathing down his neck, Sanju Samson will be under pressure to turn the frequent busts in his performance graph into consistent booms as India take on England in the second T20 International here on Saturday.

The first game was abandoned after India posted a healthy 189 for 7 at the Chester-Le-Street in Durham, riding on half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma and skipper Shreyas Iyer.

However, the focus of attention during the next few games would be Sanju Samson and whether he can weather the Sooryavanshi storm that is building up on the sidelines.

In an alternate universe, three back-to-back match-winning knocks in India’s T20 World Cup triumph would have given Kerala’s most ‘globally followed’ sporting icon a cushion for a year.

But with Indian cricket discovering the generational talent of Sooryavanshi, Samson’s margin for error has become minimal and the T20 World Cup halo alone can’t save him.

With Abhishek Sharma smashing his way to 49 and 59 in two of the last three games, the pressure is entirely on Samson to get some runs under his belt.

In the opening game that was washed out, Samson looked miserable scoring a single run off seven balls and not for once did it seem that he is trying to take the high-risk high-reward route.

The technical flaws in Samson’s game don’t inspire a lot of confidence when he plays on seaming tracks. Ireland’s unheralded Jai Moondra, who actually hails from Rajasthan’s Tonk, had exposed his frailties during successive games with deliveries that moved off the surface.

In case of Samson, the occasional high scores have always been flanked by a series of low returns on either side and that has been his biggest bane.

The highly talented Tilak Varma’s held-back approach in the middle overs is also an issue.

Varma simply seems incapable of pushing the scoring rate once slow bowlers come into operation or seamers take pace off their deliveries.

In 12 T20I games in 2026, Varma has been able to hit only 12 sixes- which is one per game. Agencies

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