India’s hard-hitting opener Abhishek Sharma scored his first runs of the T20 World Cup 2026 after three consecutive ducks. But, Abhishek never looked uncomfortable and was dismissed for a 12-ball 15 by Marco Jansen. As India lost to South Africa by a huge margin of 76 runs, putting their semifinal qualification chances in jeopardy, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate faced the question around Abhishek's form again. While the former Netherlands cricketer didn’t defend Abhishek, he feels that the food poisoning which made him miss the game against Namibia hampered his progress going into the tournament.
"I think Abhi's preparation coming into the World Cup with the food poisoning that he had at one stage has obviously hampered his progress in terms of where we want him to be at this phase," assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said in the post-match press conference.
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"You want him to be up and running and sort of confident in his swing and confident in his game plan and when you score three zeros that is going to start weighing on you. I saw some really good signs on Friday night in the nets, I think I mentioned it in the presser then. But he looks a little bit short and our job as the coaching staff is to pull that right. We've got four days to do that."
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Will Samson play against Zimbabwe
In Abhishek’s absence, Sanju Samson had contributed with an 8-ball 22 cameo against Namibia. Samson has been warming the benches as India have zeroed in on Ishan Kishan and Abhishek as the opening combination. Kishan repaid the team management’s faith with a blistering half-century against Pakistan but he hasn’t been firing since.
Meanwhile, India’s strange problem against right-arm off-spinners has been much talked about. Having too many left-handers in the lineup is a problem India have seldom faced before. There have been calls to include Samson in the lineup. Tilak Varma hasn’t done himself any favours either by registering a single-digit score against the Proteas. Samson may get a spot when India face Zimbabwe in their must-win clash at his homeground, MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
“Look, there’s a lot of inexperience in the team and you want a settled side. These guys have done it all before. They’re all fantastic players. So do you stick or twist? Do you stick with the guys who we feel have performed really well over the last 18 months and who are maybe just short of a few runs now? Or do we twist and bring in Sanju, who’s also a fantastic player and obviously helps tactically by having a right-hander at the top of the order? I’m sure that will be a talking point over the next few days going into these two very important games,” Ten Doeschate said as he hinted that Samson will be on the radar.
Samson’s record vs Zimbabwe
Samson has played four T20Is against Zimbabwe. From three innings, he has scored 89 runs at an average of 44.50 and strike rate of 117.10. He has a half-century against Zimbabwe as well.