Ashwin Warns India Against Dropping This Player Vs New Zealand: 'Circus Act'

Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has warned the Gautam Gambhir-led Indian team management against dropping Sanju Samson from the playing 11 for the near future. Ashwin labeled it a ‘circus act’,

saying that it won’t end well for the environment inside the dressing room.

After spending months in the middle order to make way for Shubman Gill (which led to his eventual dropping), Samson finally returned to his favorite position as the opener in the New Zealand T20I series. However, the first two games didn’t go well, with scores of 6 and 10.

Ishan Kishan, the backup ‘keeper behind Samson, got a chance to play number three because Tilak Varma was injured and smashed a sensational 76 in the second match. That has led to conjecture about the team management promoting Kishan ahead of Samson — former opener Aakash Chopra even suggested the third T20I would be the most important game of his career, with Tilak’s return looming.

“It’s way too early to think of dropping him,” Ashwin said in a video on his YouTube channel. “If India keeps doing such circus acts by playing Sanju when he did well before, and now Kishan because he’s playing well now, I don’t have to tell how it’ll end for India. It’s not ideal inside the dressing room. There is a lot of competition for places, but it’s too early for this change.”

Ashwin added that Samson got out attacking the ball in the second T20I, and dropping him would be like punishing someone for being a team man.

“It’ll be very unfair. This opening combination has been reverted only for the last two games. A player has got out playing an attacking shot. If you penalize him for that and bench him, how will you witness the best of that player? It wasn’t that there was a rush of blood or that he wasn’t calm. He just saw the ball and went for it. That’s how you should instinctively bat, but it just didn’t go his way,” he said.

India lead the series 2-0 and play the third T20I on Sunday.