Left, right, left? Why India should turn to Sanju Samson to get starts right
India Today
India vs Zimbabwe, T20 World Cup Super 8: With India's opening stands stalling and part-timers reaping rewards, their campaign needs an urgent fix at the top. Is reintroducing Sanju Samson the tactical recalibration needed to find the right balance?
Not very long ago, India were searching for left-handers. For years, their white-ball batting was dominated by right-handers, and team think tanks spoke often about the need to break bowling rhythms, disrupt angles, and create tactical discomfort. Left-handers were the antidote. They were the balance.
IND vs ZIM, T20 World Cup: Preview
Today, India don’t have that problem anymore. They have the opposite one.
India haven’t just added left-handers; they have built an entire batting identity around them. And in doing so, they may have created a vulnerability that has quietly followed them into the 2026 T20 World Cup.
The shift is staggering. In the 2022 World Cup, India featured just one left-hander in the top six. By 2024, that number had risen to three. In this tournament, the transformation is total. Against South Africa, five of the top six were southpaws. Against Pakistan, six of the top eight batted left-handed.
This wasn’t a coincidence. It was by design.
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