Should Sanju Samson be preferred over Rishabh Pant over limited overs?

Once again the most popular discussions have crept into the Cricket News and are making headlines — the suitability of Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson. On one hand, the experts bat for Sanju Samson for his orthodox style of batting in the limited-overs format of the game, while another set of cricket legends ask for some patience with the 22-year-old Indian batsman, Rishabh Pant. The sole reason for this discussion is the downgoing performance of Rishabh Pant in the international cricket and at the same time, improving the performance of Sanju Smason in First Class and List A Cricket.

However, things are not as simple as they seem to be at the first look at the scenario. Rishabh Pant has a lot of chances at international cricket so far, both in the Test and the T20I format of the game. In his last 2 matches against South Africa, Rishabh Pant scored 4 and 19 runs respectively in the second and the third T20I while batting at number 4. India at this point in time might not want to modify that batting position as India vs Bangladesh Schedule does contain limited-overs matches which will be held on November 2019.

Also, while taking a glance at his all time batting figures in T20I cricket, it seems he is reckless on the field. He has managed to score only 325 runs on 20 matches played so far at a meager average of 20.65 which makes this performance aren’t so impressive one. Also, he has scored 2 half centuries so far. This brings his overall run scoring rate to around 5 runs per match — not a very impressive figure to be taken into the national squad of the Indian Cricket team.

On the other hand, Sanju Samson has far better and stronger figures to back his claim at a spot on the Indian team. He has been scoring runs back to back in all the List A matches in the past few weeks. His last 10 scores in the List A category are 67,36, 48, 16 and 212 which show that he is in a great form. Also, his stats in the limited-overs format are enough to make him enter the Indian squad in the limited-overs format. He has 3353 runs in 142 T20 matches played so far, with 2 centuries and 22 half-centuries. This is more than sufficient for what is required to get a spot on the national team.

But, there is something most of the people miss out — the stats of Rishabh Pant in domestic cricket. When compared to the stats of Sanju Samson, Rishabh Pant is far better than him in the domestic cricket. For example, Rishabh Pant bats with a strike rate of 159.60 in domestic limited-overs cricket, when compared to Sanju Samson who bats at a strike rate of 126. Also, Sanju Smason has an average of 27.48 in the same format whereas Rishabh Pant outnumbers him with ana average of 33.76 — far better than anyone else.

This again brings Rishabh Pant to be the first in line to be included in the National Squad. Things at this moment are getting complicated and a solution needs to formulated by the selectors before the third man comes in — Shreyas Iyer.