Sanju Samson’s return to the top of the batting order has not panned out well as yet in the New Zealand T20I series, and the pressure has begun to mount on the Kerala wicket-keeper after Ishan Kishan’s swashbuckling knock in Raipur on Friday. While both Samson and Kishan failed to convert starts during India’s emphatic win in Nagpur in the series opener, the latter made amends and steered the Men in Blue to an emphatic 209-run chase against the Kiwis in the second outing. Kishan produced one of his best T20I knocks in only his second game back in the side after two years. After Samson fluffed another chance, holing out to a miscued slog at the edge of the circle, India lost in-form opener Abhishek Sharma for a golden duck. However, Kishan launched an exceptional counter-attack, soaring to 76 off only 32 balls with 11 fours and four sixes. Captain Suryakumar Yadav then put the finishing touches to the chase as he roared back to form with an unbeaten 82 off 37 deliveries. However, with Samson scoring only 16 runs in the two knocks, former India opener Aakash Chopra reckons he will be feeling the heat with only three games left in the series. There is also a chance that the injured Tilak Varma will return for the last two T20Is, and Samson could miss his first game in his hometown, Thiruvananthapuram, in the last match of the series. Sublime striking! 🔥 🎥 Ishan Kishan gets to his fifty in some style 👏 Updates ▶️ https://t.co/8G8p1tq1RC#TeamIndia | #INDvNZ | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @ishankishan51 pic.twitter.com/x4RK92sjmJ — BCCI (@BCCI) January 23, 2026 ‘Pressure on Sanju’ “Comebacks are tougher than debuts. And after getting dismissed for not too much in the first game, very few people will go out with the same kind of bravado and confidence like Ishan did in the second game. So he has done his chances no harm. Pressure on Sanju now. If he scores the runs, he stays afloat. Otherwise, it’s Ishan Kishan who will be playing in Visakhapatnam and Thiruvananthapuram,” said Chopra on ESPNcricinfo. ALSO READ | Save the umpires: ICC needs to protect them from hard-hitters like Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya Chopra hailed Kishan’s form and said that a special intervention of destiny had played out in his return. Snubbed from the international set-up for close to two years, Kishan led Jharkhand to their first-ever Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with a spell-binding season. “So, you score runs. Team India pivots. They drop their vice-captain. They get a keeper to open. But again, Ishan is a backup keeper. And then a top-order left-handed batter gets injured for the first three games. And therein, Sanju also fails. This is not the script that you write yourself. There is somebody else who’s taking care of that script,” remarked Chopra.
‘It could be Ishan Kishan who will play in Thiruvananthapuram’: Sanju Samson under pressure to keep spot, says former opener
