India vs South Africa 5th T20I: Sanju Samson capitalised on the opportunity he got in the fifth and final T20I match between India and South Africa at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday. Samson made it to India's playing XI as South Africa opted to bowl first after winning the toss with an aim to level the five-match series.

While Samson has been in the major focus for not being part of the lineup over the past few matches, he opened his account on the third ball and then on the last ball of the second over, bowled by Marco Jansen, he smashed his first six of the match.

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During the initial part of his innings, Samson achieved a remarkable feat as he completed 1000 runs in T20Is for the Indian team. The wicketkeeper-batter headed into the contest just five runs short of the milestone, and he stitched an impressive 63-run opening stand with Abhishek Sharma to provide India a fiery start. Notably, Sanju is the third Indian wicketkeeper-batter after MS Dhoni and Rishabh Pant to score at least 1000 runs in T20Is.

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It is to be noted that Samson hasn't scored all of his T20I runs as a designated wicketkeeper-batter, having played in several different roles as well. He is overall the 14th Indian to go past the 1000-run mark in the T20I format.

Samson got his chance as the team's vice-captain, Shubman Gill missed out due to an injury he suffered while batting on the nets in Lucknow and was unavailable for the selection. The 31-year-old Samson looked like a finalised opener for India heading forward a few months ago. However, an elevation given to Gill with the vice-captaincy role turned out to be a big setback for Samson, who hasn't been able to make it to the lineup and had to even bat lower down the order in a few games.


IND vs SA 5th T20I Playing XIs

India: Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma(w), Washington Sundar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh

South Africa: Aiden Markram (Captain), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Donovan Ferreira, George Linde, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman

 


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