'You cannot sign off Sanju Samson'

Suresh Raina believes Sanju Samson could prove to be the X-Factor in the T20 World Cup.

After struggling to seal his place in India's white ball teams, Samson finally made everyone take notice of his special talent with a superb century in the third and final ODI against South Africa in Paarl last month.

'You cannot sign off Sanju Samson. The way he scored a hundred against South Africa on the latter's soil. He plays fearlessly and is a superb wicket-keeper,' Raina, who is doing commentary for Jio Cinema for the India-Afghanistan T20I series, said.

'Samson is also a captain material. He has done really well whenever he has got chances."

Samson, who is part of the Afghanistan T20Is, has failed to make it to the playing XI with Jitesh Sharma preferred as the wicket-keeper-batter for India in the first two games.

Raina, who was part of India's 2011 World Cup winning team, said Samson with his range of shots should be in contention for the T20 World Cup in June if he does well in IPL 2024.

'We have some very good options for the wicket-keeper-batter role -- K L Rahul, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Kishan and (Rishabh) Pant whenever he comes back after getting fit.'

'I prefer to have Sanju in the middle-order because he has a lot of shots. He plays those pick-up shots against pacers from the length. Hopefully, he performs well in the IPL too before the selectors sit down to select the team for the T20 World Cup. So, it is a good chance for Sanju against Afghanistan, and he can be our X-Factor in the World Cup.'

Before the century against South Africa, Samson found it hard to win the trust of the team management. Since making his India debut in 2015, the Kerala batter has played just 16 ODIs and 24 T20Is in eight years.

He boasts of a good record in the IPL with 3,888 runs in 152 games at a strike rate of 137, with three centuries and 20 fifties.

Such has been his consistency that Samson has always finished with 300 runs or more in the last seven seasons of IPL, including a career high of 484 runs in 2021 when he took over the captaincy of the Rajasthan Royals.

Samson will be hoping his maiden international century proves to be turning point and he can produce the runs consistently for Team India in the years to come.