Column | T20 series: One last chance for Sanju to cement his place in Indian XI

The three-match T20 International series between India and Bangladesh currently underway clashes with the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s World Cup in the same version of the game. The World Cup, held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is expected to receive more attention from the sport's followers in India, given the rapid strides that the women’s team has made in the international arena during the last few years.

However, the T20 series between the national men’s team and Bangladesh will generate interest amongst those who like to track the careers of cricketers on the fringe of making it to the national side and those trying to cement their place. The committee of selectors led by Ajit Agarkar deserve to be complimented for their decision to use this series to blood players who have proved their worth in the Indian Premier League (IPL) so that they can use the familiar home conditions to make a good start to their careers. The players who fall under this category are Mayank Yadav, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy.

The selectors also decided to give one more opportunity to the highly talented Sanju Samson to enable him to make a firm bid for a permanent slot in the playing eleven. They also brought in Varun Chakraborty, who last played for India in 2021.

Sanju has been an enigma to the fans of the game. He has been in and out of the national side for white-ball cricket since 2021. He is the only IPL franchisee captain who is not a regular member of the national side. He narrowly missed making it to the squad for the ICC World Cup held in India in 2023. Though Sanju was a member of the team that won the ICC T20 World Cup in 2024, he did not play in even a single game. He was a member of the playing eleven during the series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka but could not come up with an outstanding performance that would have helped his case.

This inability to score runs consistently at the international level comes as a surprise, given Sanju's success with the bat for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in IPL. To be fair to him, there is some substance in the fact that since he started out as a middle order batsman, he did not get many opportunities to display his wares with the willow in the shortest duration version of the game.

Further, he did not get a long enough stint in the playing eleven, as other stumpers were in the squad. These issues were not present in the IPL, where he batted at number three for RR, and his place in the eleven was never in doubt.

This series offers Sanju a big chance to make a couple of tall scores with the bat and do justice to the enormous talent that he is blessed with. Though Jitesh Sharma is also on the squad, Sanju is the first-choice wicketkeeper. Besides, he may also open the innings as the team has no opening batter other than Abhishek Sharma.

Sanju is not a stranger to this task either as he has batted at the top of the order on many occasions in T20 matches, both at domestic and international levels. This arrangement should work well for Sanju since he is assured of a place in the eleven and is also certain to take guard at the crease when it is India’s turn to bat.

One hopes that Sanju grabs the opportunities he gets during this series with both hands and sets the stands ablaze with the stroke play he usually reserves for outings in IPL while turning out for RR. He is 29 years old and, hence, no spring chicken. Many other wicketkeeper batters are knocking at the doors of the national side, besides Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel and Ishan Kishen. Sanju may be forced to bid adieu to his hopes of being a regular member of the national squad if he fails to make the most of this opportunity provided to him by the national selectors.

Varun Chakravarthy had a meteoric rise on the Indian cricket horizon during the 2018-19 season. He debuted for Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and topped the list of wicket-takers from the state in this tournament. After playing just one first-class match, he was bought for a whopping Rs 8.4 crore by Kings XI Punjab (KXP) in 2018. He had an inauspicious debut for this franchisee in IPL 2019, conceding 25 runs in his first over. He was relieved by KXP before the auction in 2020 but was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). He came into his own in IPL after this move and has been a consistent performer for this franchisee ever since.

Varun’s forays into international cricket were limited to a few matches in 2021, but his performances there were lacklustre. Hence, his comeback into the national reckoning could have been fashioned only by the excellent performances in IPL, where he was his captain's “go-to bowler” during any crisis.

His tally of 20 and 21 wickets in IPL during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, respectively, made him not only the highest wicket-taker for his side but also secured the second place behind Harshal Patel in the reckoning for “Purple Cap” in the last edition of this championship. Mystery spinners of his genre are an asset for any captain in international cricket and it is up to skipper Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) to make the best use of his capabilities during this series.

Cricket lovers all over the country will eagerly look forward to Mayank Yadav's return to competitive cricket. Mayank was the “find” of IPL 2024, where he consistently bowled at speeds exceeding 150 km per hour and once even touched 156.7 mph, the fastest ever in the history of this championship. But a side strain forced him out of the tournament after he had picked two consecutive “player of the match” awards, a record not achieved by anyone else before.

There is no doubt that he is one of the most exciting fast bowling prospects to emerge from the country in the recent years. The series against Bangladesh will see him test his mettle for the first time in the international arena and a good performance there will help him to win a place in the squad to tour Australia later in the year.

Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy have also made their way to the national reckoning through the IPL route. However, both have also performed creditably in domestic first-class matches. Although Harshit is primarily a fast bowler who finished just behind Varun Chakravarthy in the wicket haul in IPL 2024, he is no rabbit with the bat and even has a century to his credit in Duleep Trophy.

Nitish, on the other hand, is a batsman who can bowl useful medium pace. Both Harshit and Nitish are in their early twenties and should use this opportunity to learn as much as possible to sharpen and polish their skills.

After the retirement of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja from T20 Internationals after the win in 2024 World Cup, India is in the process of rebuilding their national side. The series against Bangladesh offers an opportunity for the players referred to above to display their prowess and stake claim for the places that have opened up in the side.

However, it will be a folly to take Bangladesh lightly as they have proved time and again that they are no pushovers. And they will be raring to go if only to erase from the public mind the memories of their poor show during the test series that ended last week. Best wishes to SKY and his boys for the series against Bangladesh. Special good wishes to Sanju, Varun, Mayank, Harshit, and Nitish for their scintillating performances on the field.