Sanju Samson batted twice in the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 and has not looked at his best during both those outings. India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate opened up on Samson’s new middle-order role, stating that the batter is still figuring out it.
India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate expressed his thoughts on Sanju Samson’s new batting position in the middle-order during the ongoing Asia Cup 2025.
Samson, who smacked three centuries in five innings while opening the innings last year, has been pushed to the middle-order for the Asia Cup after Shubman Gill made a return to the T20I side and was named the vice-captain.
He did not get to bat during the first two matches in the tournament and came to bat at No.3 in the dead rubber against Oman, against whom he put up a struggling 56 off 45 balls while the pitch was not very good to bat on.
He batted at No.5 in the Super Four match against Pakistan and made another struggling 13 from 17 balls in the clash. Speaking on Samson’s role, the assistant coach said that the wicketkeeper batter is still figuring himself out in the middle-order role.
“There’s two outings now, two decent chances and he’s still figuring out how to play that role,” ten Doeschate said of Samson. “I think the wicket was a little bit tired in the Pakistan game. But certainly with the way Shubman [Gill] and Abhi [Abhishek Sharma] are going at the top and you’ve got your captain batting at three and the way Tilak’s [Verma] played, we’re really looking for a No. 5. So we believe Sanju is the best man for that job and we’ve got no doubt that he’ll figure out how to play that role in the future.”
Meanwhile, the coach also stated that Jasprit Bumrah is unlikely to be rested for the Bangladesh clash. “It’s very unlikely that you [India] go into the last game knowing you’ve qualified,” ten Doeschate said. “So I’d say it’s unlikely that he’ll get a rest. Also bearing in mind we have a Test match starting [next] Thursday. So it’s actually quite good preparation in terms of workload management … So if we have the luxury to have that option [of resting Bumrah] in the last game, we can look at it. But I’d say we’re going to pick our best team for every game. He obviously fits into that picture.”