‘I need to be a villain or joker also’: Sanju Samson compares himself to Mohanlal after batting order demotion in Asia Cup clash with Bangladesh

As the Indian team stumbled its way to scoring 168/6 against Bangladesh in a Super 4 clash on Wednesday, there was plenty of debate about Sanju Samson not getting to bat at all. With Samson in the playing XI, the Indian team management opted to promote Axar Patel up the order at No 7, where he managed to score just 10 runs in the 15 balls he faced. Before the game, Samson gave an interview with the host broadcaster, where he was asked by former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar about what he thought his best position was in the batting order. Samson gave a reference to legendary actor Mohanlal to explain his situation before calling himself “Sanju Mohanlal Samson” with a chuckle.

“There’s our actor, Mohanlal, who got a big award from the Indian government (the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest award in the field of cinema). He has been an actor for 20, 30, 40 years. I have been playing for India for 10 years. So, I can’t come in and say ‘I only can do the hero role.’ I need to be a villain. I need to be a joker. I need to play around,” Samson told Sony Sports Network. “You can’t say that you have scored runs in the opening position and you are really good in the top three spots. I feel let me try this also. No one can say why I can’t be a good villain. Let’s see how it goes.”

After this explanation, Manjrekar replied: “Well done, Mohanlal. Sorry, Sanju Samson.”

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This was when the wicketkeeper-batter called himself ‘Sanju Mohanlal Samson’ with a chuckle.

WATCH: Sanju Samson compares himself to Mohanlal

Sanju Samson’s villain arc loading… 🦹‍♂️🔥

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Against Bangladesh, Shivam Dube came into bat after Gill got out with the team breaking from its norm of sending a right-hander to replace a right-hander. When India lost its fifth wicket in the 15th over, India held back Samson and sent in Axar Patel.

At the Asia Cup, the Kerala star has been called in to bat in just two innings in five matches, scoring one half century against Oman. Samson was opening the innings before the Asia Cup. With Shubman Gill making it to the side, he’s moved up the order to open with Abhishek Sharma. This means that Suryakumar Yadav comes in at 3 while Samson usually plays at No 5. Since Gill has been opening, Samson has batted only once at No. 3 in five games, against Oman.