Sanju Samson's struggles against pace is not news anymore.
Samson, who was dismissed by England quick Jofra Archer with a short ball in the first two T20Is against England, was found wanting.
The England pace duo of Archer and Mark Wood posed a few problems to Samson and his opening partner Abhishek Singh with their pace and ability to find bounce.
This got former India opener Aakash Chopra talking.
While analysing Samson's batting, he said on his YouTube channel: 'Our stats team came out with a stat on how Sanju Samson has performed when the ball's speed is more than 140 kph. His performance has been extremely ordinary. He hasn't scored runs and has lost his wicket as well.'
In order to correct his errors, Samson arrived at the Saurashtra Cricket Association ground in Rajkot on Monday long before the rest of his India teammates turned up for practice ahead of the third T20I against England.
Samson had new batting batting coach Sitanshu Kotak and throwdown specialists for company.
Padded up, he straightway waltzed to the SCA nets to polish his game against the short ball.
Samson batted for around 45 minutes on a cemented pitch where he was fed plastic balls for the pull and hook. Kotak was seen having frequent exchanges with the batter.
He mostly negotiated the rising ball along with an odd full ball sent by the throwdown specialists. Besides the pull and hook, Samson practiced the ramp and the cut.
After that extensive hit in the nets, Samson batted in the main square for another 30 minutes or so and the focus was again on the climbing ball.
Samson had a dream series in late 2024 in South Africa where he smashed two hundreds in four T20Is. He had also slammed a century against Bangladesh in a home T20I last year.
After putting in the work on Monday, Samson will be backing himself to pass the England pace test in Rajkot on Tuesday.
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