Let Tilak go. Bring back Sanja Samson? Former coach warns India after 3rd T20I capitulation

Former India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar has warned the team management not to play with the team combination just to bring Sanju Samson back into the playing eleven. Nayar stated that Samson should only be recalled if the team can field him in the top three and warned that the return of the middle order may not bring the desired results.

Nayar’s comments came when a TV channel asked whether India should consider dropping Tilak Varma from the XI to accommodate Samson in the middle-order role. India slip to their worst ever defeat, lost to England by 125 runs in the third match of the ongoing five-match series.

Chennai Super Kings batter was dropped for the second T20I in Manchester to accommodate Vaibhav Sooryavanshi at the top of the order. After managing just six runs in three T20Is – including the two matches against Ireland that India lost – Samson was dropped just months after winning the Player of the Tournament award at the T20 World Cup.

“I really feel that if you have to get Sanju Samson back, you want to put him in a place where he can succeed. Now, just because you want to bring him in, you bat him at No. 4, 5 or 6. It’s not something he’s done a lot. It’s not something he’s been successful at,” Nayar said.

“He was best suited when opening or batting in the top three. So if you are not giving him that position, then I feel it is better if you don’t play Sanju Samson and instead stick with the kind of batting line-up that India have.”

Samson has operated predominantly among the top three in T20 cricket. His top-three average is above 30, but drops to 22.63 at No.4, where he has batted 65 innings. In the 5th position, which he occupied only 14 times, the average dropped to 15.33.

PRESSURE ON TILAK VARMU?

Tilak, who was named vice-captain to newly anointed captain Shreyas Iyer after the T20 World Cup, struggled during the ongoing UK tour. Apart from a well-paced 45-ball 56, the left-hander failed to break 20 in any of his next five knocks on the tour. On Tuesday, Tilak was out for a slow 3 off 11 balls, bowled off-spinner Will Jacks.

However, Tilak has also played out of position since midway through the T20 World Cup. Naturally batting at No.3, the Hyderabad star was pushed down the order to replace Ishan Kishan at the top.

Nayar insisted that it was crucial that the team management did not press the panic button, arguing that the primary problem was misjudging the conditions in Ireland and England, which were in stark contrast to the pitches during the IPL earlier this year.

“They will have to think about it. As Gautam Gambhir said, they are 190 in two innings but that is batting first. They struggled in the chase because they didn’t assess the conditions enough. They didn’t find the right pace to score runs,” Nayar added.

“You don’t want to hit the panic button. You don’t want to make changes because of that. If Sanju Samson has to come in, that’s all management has to do: put him in a place where he can succeed.”

Speaking after India’s thrashing in Nottingham, head coach Gautam Gambhir also admitted that the visitors were not good enough at reading the pitch and conditions during their UK tour.

“We didn’t adapt well. Whether it was in Ireland or here in England, that was the reality. If we had adapted better and played better cricket, we wouldn’t have lost four games in a row,” he said.

– The end

Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

08 Jul 2026 13:44 IST