Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar feels Sanju Samson seemed a bit late on the ball in the five-match T20I series against England. Samson didn’t have  a great series and was dismissed on short-pitched deliveries in all five games.

The Kerala batter could only manage 51 runs in five games at an average of 10.20 and thus could not deliver the goods for the hosts at the top of the order. Samson even changed his batting stance in the fifth game but was dismissed after scoring a 7-ball 16-run cameo at Mumbai on Sunday. 

Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo, “The England bowlers are bowling into his body, so he’s sort of cramped for room trying to play that shot. He doesn’t get room because he’s not coming inside the line of the ball to play. Plus, I think he’s getting a little slow. The ball seems to be rushing onto him, so that’s something that he needs to work on.”

The cricket analyst further dissected Sanju Samson’s technique against the short-pitched deliveries.

“The way he started off, the pull shot worked for him twice. He has started this new thing – going outside leg stump with the back foot trigger movement and then looking to play everything on the off side. Anything on the leg side, he was just playing a fine glance.”

“After playing those shots, he could have may be just changed his trigger movement a little bit. [He could have] got onto the off stump because these players do that quite comfortably,” the former India batter added.

Manjrekar urged the team’s think tank to keep backing Sanju Samson despite a poor run against England.

“Little street smartness at the right time should see him through. As I said before, the guys when they play well, the kind of peaks that they reach…, so when they down at the bottom, we need to be patient.”

Samson will next lead Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025 as he is not part of India’s Champions Trophy squad.