Rishabh Pant vs Sanju Samson: Gautam Gambhir names who could be India's wicketkeeper at T20 WC
Pant vs Samson: Gambhir names who could be India's wicketkeeper at T20 WC
Team India will kick off their campaign at T20 World Cup 2024, to be held in the West Indies and USA in June, with their tournament opener on June 5 versus Ireland. Ahead of the match, former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir opined on who should be India's wicketkeeper in the playing XI. With two in-form keeper-batters such as Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson in the squad, Gambhir backed Pant to feature ahead of Samson.
Gambhir -- the 2007 T20 WC winner -- told Sportskeeda, "I think only one of them will be in the starting side and whoever it is, India must back him ... both have equal quality. It's touch and go but I'd start with Rishabh because he's a left-hander and a natural middle-order batsman. Sanju in the IPL has batted at number three, but India's top-order is fixed."
Further, the current Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor stated, "Rishabh has batted at number five, six and seven. India need a wicketkeeper in that position as compared to a top-three batsman. A left-hander in the middle-order gives you that left-hand-right-hand combination."
"If India see that Sanju can score more runs at number six or seven, they could go with him as well," Gambhir added.
Also read: 2024 T20 World Cup: India get second semi-final on June 27 with no reserve day | Read Why
Both Samson and Pant have had a good run in the ongoing IPL 2024 edition, where they are leading the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Delhi Capitals (DC), respectively. Samson has 486 runs -- fifth-most -- at a strike rate of158.30, including five fifties. Meanwhile, the Delhi captain has 446 runs -- ninth-most -- striking at 155.40with three half-centuries.
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Thus, there isn't much to separate between the two. For India, Samson has a better strike rate than Pant in T20Is (133.09 when compared to his competitor's 126.37). However, the latter has played 66 T20Is as opposed to Samson's 25.
India squad:
Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj
Reserves:Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan