Former India opener Kris Srikkanth believes that wicketkeeper batter Sanju Samson will lose his spot from the team's playing XI if he fails to perform a couple of times, and this will also open up the door for Shreyas Iyer’s return. Samson, who was promoted as an opener after Rohit Sharma's T20I retirement, is currently featuring as a middle-order batter for the Suryakumar Yadav-led side in the Asia Cup 2025.
It was Test captain Shubman Gill's return in the shortest format of the game that forced Team India to make changes in their batting order for the Asia Cup 2025. The batter was seen opening batting alongside Abhishek Sharma, which used to be Samson's batting spot, and the wicketkeeper batter has been shunted down to No. 5.
“I would tell Sanju Samson, ‘Careful Sanju, this is probably a do-or-die chance for you. They might not include you if you do not score. If you underperform for a couple of games, Shreyas Iyer might come in,'" Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
“I think shifting Sanju down the order to No. 5 is probably making way for Shreyas. Not sure if I’m right or wrong. But, think about this, Sanju hasn’t played No. 5 in T20s. His confidence might take a hit batting at No. 5 and so I’m not too happy," he added.
Samson has so far scored 522 of his 861 runs in T20Is, including all three of his centuries, as an opener. However, the Kerala-born cricketer hasn’t found much success when batting lower, though.
Srikkanth also wondered what role Samson has been assigned in the middle order since there are already two finishers – Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube – in the playing XI.
“They (India) are playing Sanju Samson in the middle-order. Are they going to use him as the finisher? No. That’ll be Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube. So, Samson will play at 5. Will he deliver? That is a question," said Srikkanth.
“Sanju Samson has been included ahead of Jitesh Sharma, which is fine for Asia Cup. But what happens at the T20 World Cup?" he added.
Team India have defeated UAE in their Asia Cup 2025 opener clash, and now the side will face Pakistan in their second clash, which will take place on September 14 at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai.