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India made it to the final of the T20 Asia Cup 2025 after their fifth consecutive win in the tournament. India beat Bangladesh by 41 runs to make it past the group stage. However, before the spinners choked the Bangladesh batting lineup, it was India’s batters who failed to post a big score despite Abhishek Sharma’s 37-ball 75. Shivam Dube batted at no.3, Tilak Varma at no.6 and Sanju Samson did not bat as he was slotted at no.8. After Abhishek departed on the first ball of the 12th over, India were 112/3. They struggled in the middle overs and towards the end, posting 168/6. Following the goof-up in the batting department, legendary Sunil Gavaskar urged head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav to not tinker with the batting order too much.
"Cricket is not for fun and games (Cricket se masti nahi). The way the batting order was shuffled — it shouldn't have been done. 168 runs were not enough, and while Bangladesh couldn’t chase it, a bigger team could have made it a problem,” Gavaskar told AajTak in an exclusive interaction.
Gavaskar said that there is a lack of clarity in Samson’s role in the team. He feels Dube batting in top order wasn’t a wise move and too much experimentation should be avoided.
“You took Sanju Samson away from opening and made him the wicketkeeper, then gave him the role of batting at No. 5 or as a finisher. Shivam Dube, who is usually at No. 6 or 7 to come in and score 20–25 runs off 10 balls — that’s his role. But you sent him at No. 3, and he couldn't adjust and got out,” Gavaskar said.
“So in my opinion, you shouldn't experiment too much," he added.
Pandya and Samson’s T20I record vs Bangladesh
The score would have been lower had it not been for Hardik Pandya's 29-ball 38. Samson who did not get to bat has a good record against Bangladesh. He is the only batter to score a century in India-Bangladesh T20I encounters.
Pandya's knock helped him complete 250 runs against Bangladesh in T20Is. From eight innings, he has 257 runs at an average of 42.83 and strike rate of 183.57.
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