Sanju Samson is having a poor form in T20I cricket. The right-handed batter has scored only 34 runs across three innings at an average of 11.33 and a strike rate of 103.03 in India’s ongoing five-match series against England. Samson started with a positive knock of 26 but scored only 5 and 3 in his next two innings, respectively. More than the runs, the matter of concern is that he was dismissed in almost similar deliveries to the same bowler — short balls from Jofra Archer. Samson tried to pull the England pacer on all three occasions and a failed attempt saw him losing his wicket.

Such identical dismissals have given rise to the talks of short ball troubling Samson. While talking about the India star’s batting, former England captain Kevin Pietersen rubbished the criticism. He made the statement to host broadcaster as quoted by India Today. Pietersen praised Samson and added that such things do happen occasionally.

“I think mentally he’s sound. I really like Sanju Samson as a batter. I actually love him. I was pretty surprised that he hasn’t had more of a consistent role over the last few years. Yes, he’s got a game here at the top of the order, but listen, these things happen. Things happen so quickly in the shortest form of the game,” Pietersen said.

“If he keeps doing it over the next six weeks or he does it over the next couple of months, then I’d probably have a look at it and start to question his technique. But I think that he’s a fabulous player. I think he plays the short ball extremely well, and I just think he’s a rock solid player. So from that standpoint, there’s no way that I’m going to stand here and critique his play of the short ball,” Pietersen said.