"The ball seems to be rushing onto him" - Sanjay Manjrekar analyzes Indian batter's struggles in IND vs ENG 2025 T20I series

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar reckons Sanju Samson seemed a bit slow in playing his strokes against England's fast bowlers in the recently concluded T20I series. He admitted that it's an area of his game the batter needs to work on.

India hammered England 4-1 in the five-matchT20I series, which ended at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, February 2. Abhishek Sharma was the leading run-getter in the series, smashing 279 runs in five innings at an average of 55.80 and a strike rate of 219.69. His opening partner Samson, however, managed only 51 runs at an average of 10.20 and a strike rate of 118.60.

In all five matches, the Kerala keeper-better was dismissed trying to play the pull shot. During a post-series interaction on ESPNcricinfo, Manjrekar opined that England's exposed a chink in Samson's technique. He explained:

"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 59-year-old felt that the Indian opener could have batted differently after hitting two sixes and a four off Jofra Archer in the first over of the fifth T20I in Mumbai. He said:

"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, however, urged the Indian think tank to keep backing Samson and not read too much into his failures against England. He commented:

"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 went into the five-match series against England at home with three hundreds and two ducks in his last five T20I knocks.

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Samson's performance in IND vs ENG 2025 T20I series

The 30-year-old right-handed batter began the series against England with 26 off 20 balls at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. He followed it up with three single-figure scores of 5, 3, and 1 in Chennai, Rajkot, and Pune, respectively.

Samson ended the series with 16 off seven balls in the fifth and final T20I in Mumbai. He was dismissed by Archer in three out of the five matches.