Former Indian national cricket team opener Aakash Chopra has issued a do or die ultimatum to star wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson.
Aakash Chopra said that when India take the field in Guwahati to take on New Zealand on Sunday, January 25, the Kerala superstar will be playing the most important match of his life.
Sanju Samson’s struggle
Samson’s performance since becoming the permanent opening batsman for India has been excellent. However, last year, Samson suffered a major blow when the selection committee decided to recall Shubman Gill into the T20I setup.
The arrival of Shubman Gill in the team caused Sanju Samson to lose his place as an opening batsman and was eventually seen playing with Jitesh Sharma in the middle order.
Gill’s experiment at the top failed miserably, and the selection committee decided to move ahead with it ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026. Now, Samson is back as an opening batsman once again but failed miserably in the two matches against New Zealand, scoring 10 and 6.
Now, they are facing pressure from God’s child, Ishan Kishan, who has made a spectacular comeback in the Indian team and set the stage on fire with his counter-innings in the Raipur T20I.
This could be the most important match of Sanju Samson’s life – Sanju Samson
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said that Tilak Verma’s return to the playing XI after injury will rule out one of Samson and Ishan Kishan and in all likelihood it could be the Kerala player.
“This could be the most important match of Sanju Samson’s life. I am saying this because this is the third match, after this match Tilak Verma may be available and you can see him playing the match on 28th. Then only one of Ishan Kishan and Sanju will play,” he was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.
He said, “So who will be that player? Both were out in the first two matches, in the second match Ishan Kishan scored 76 runs off 32 balls and he has now gone ahead in that race.”
He made Gill the vice-captain, but did not remove Sanju-Akash Chopra
Aakash Chopra further revealed how the Indian team management and selectors treated Sanju Samson poorly and kept pushing him into challenging situations despite his stellar performances at the top of the order in T20I cricket. The cricketer turned commentator explained:
He said, “When you called him to open for the first time, you said you would give him seven matches. Sanju went and scored three centuries and he was an honor for the entire country. However, after that there was a series against England, where he did not score runs and got out in the same manner in all five innings.”
“After that his IPL was cut short because he got injured. When the next T20 match came, India had already changed their position. Because of that one bad series, they changed their philosophy that they did not need Sanju as a striker but Shubman Gill as a stable anchor,” Chopra said.
He said, “They made Gill the vice-captain but did not remove Sanju because they might have felt a little guilty because Sanju had not performed so badly. Then they were asked to bat at different positions. Then you came again and said that you will make Sanju the main keeper because we do not need Shubman Gill.”
Also read: Is Sanju Samson in danger? The issue of Rishabh Pant’s selection in T20 World Cup 2026 flared up at the last moment!