Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, admitted he had enjoyed batting alongside Abhishek Sharma, as the latter made his best contribution of the tournament so far. It may have taken some time to find the right balance, but India appears to have finally locked in their best batting mix at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
India got contributions from all of their top six batters as they put Zimbabwe to the sword in Chennai. It was the new-look opening pair of Sharma (55) and Samson (24) that did the damage during the early overs, with Ishan Kishan (38), Suryakumar Yadav (33), Hardik Pandya (50*) and Tilak Varma (44*) all getting in on the act as India posted the highest score of the T20 World Cup so far (256/4) and the second biggest in the tournament’s history.
“We keep it very simple. He keeps asking me, Paaji (brother), what the wicket is doing. I tell him nothing and to just see the ball and swing your bat, nothing else, so I really enjoy batting with him. We both complement each other really well, so very happy we could actually give India a great start today,” Samson told ICC Digital.One of the other big positives to come from the match was the performance of Varma, with the all-rounder smashing an unbeaten 44 from just 16 deliveries in a new role at No.6.
