former captain of india Sunil Gavaskar gave a blunt assessment of sanju samson After his dismissal in the fourth T20I against New Zealand at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam. Samson’s struggles continued and he could only manage 24 runs, raising fresh questions over his place in India’s plans going forward. ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.
India suffered a crushing defeat in the contest, with Gavaskar citing Samson’s lack of footwork as a recurring technical flaw that cost him his wicket once again.
Samson scored 24 runs in 15 balls at the start of his innings before being dismissed by the New Zealand captain. michel santner. However, Gavaskar was unhappy with the manner of the dismissal, which highlighted a complete absence of foot movement.
“My first impression is that there was no footwork. He was just standing there, creating space and playing from the off side.” Gavaskar said during commentary. “There was hardly any movement of the legs. Going outside the leg-stump, exposing all three stumps, and when you miss, the bowler is going to hit.”
Gavaskar said this was not an isolated incident, pointing out that Samson had fallen in a similar manner before, which made his dismissal all the more disappointing.
Samson’s form is under scrutiny amid selection debate
The wicketkeeper-batsman’s recent comeback has done little to strengthen his case. Samson has scored only 40 runs in his last four T20I innings, a worrying statistic at a time when competition for batting spots is fierce.
with Ishan Kishan Samson, who has consistently impressed at No. 3, is now firmly under scrutiny for his place in the T20 World Cup squad. The team management has shown patience, but due to repeated technical lapses, all attention is on the Kerala batsman.
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New Zealand batsmen dominated the high scoring match in Visakhapatnam
Earlier in the match, New Zealand laid a strong foundation by batting first. The explosive starts from Tim Seifert And devon conway Both of them created the atmosphere by adding 100 runs in just 8.2 overs.
Seifert played a stormy innings of 62 runs in 36 balls, while Conway scored a quick 44 runs in 23 balls. Although India made a comeback in the middle overs through disciplined spells from Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav, the damage was already done.
Just as India seemed to be pulling things back, darryl mitchell Provided the final touch by playing a strong innings of 39 runs in 18 balls. Their final attack took New Zealand to a mammoth score of 215 for seven, putting immense pressure on India.
In response, India showed flashes of promise but never threatened the target. Shivam Dubey Played a sensational cameo scoring 65 runs off just 23 balls Rinku Singh Contributed 39 consecutive runs in 30 balls.
However, the lack of support from the top order, including Samson, proved costly. India were eventually all out for 165 in 18.4 overs and lost by 50 runs.
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