Asia Cup 2025 | Last chance for India to check out Jitesh Sharma as 'finisher'

Dubai: Sanju Samson being an apparent middle-order misfit will certainly worry head coach Gautam Gambhir and the Indian team management might be tempted to check out Jitesh Sharma during their inconsequential final Super 4 encounter against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup here on Friday.

Once India won against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, which had lost both its Super 4 encounters against Bangladesh and Pakistan, was ousted from the competition and will be taking the field to complete formalities.

The stage now seems set for a possible India-Pakistan showdown in the final on Sunday.

Apart from Samson, who is not fitting into the puzzle called the Indian batting order, the only other worry at the moment could be missing 10 catches so far in the tournament, including five against Bangladesh en route to final.

In a high-stakes game, the margins are thin and even mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who suffered on account of dropped catches on multiple occasions, agreed that there is a lot of room for improvement in that aspect.

"As they say, you can't give excuses at this level. As a team, we have to definitely start catching all those because we have qualified for the finals and we should be taking all those catches," said Chakravarthy, who got a couple of wickets against Bangladesh but also saw a few chances go abegging off his bowling.

He did give benefit of doubt to the fielders because the Dubai Stadium's floodlights are not high towers and resemble football stadium lights.

"But if you ask me, the 'ring of fire' (floodlight design) definitely is a little bit of disturbance as it comes in the eyesight sometimes. We have to get acclimatised to it," the mystery spinner said.

While fielding is one aspect that needs attention, there are also little chinks in the Indian armoury which are being overlooked because of the comfortable victories in all the five games that Suryakumar Yadav's men have played so far.

Against Bangladesh, Samson wasn't even considered good enough to come inside the top seven of the line-up and that begs a question as to what is he doing in the team if he isn't good enough to come ahead of Axar Patel.

The promotion of Shivam Dube as No. 4 was understandable because of his 'match-up' against wrist spinners but it didn't work in order to keep the left-right combination in the middle. Hardik Pandya was sent ahead of him along with two left-handers in Tilak Varma and Axar.

"Sanju is still figuring out how to bat at No. 5," fielding coach Ryan ten Doeschate had said before the Bangladesh game.

There is a chance that Samson might again be promoted to No.3 in the inconsequential game against Sri Lanka and not sent in that position come Sunday when India play the final.

But that's easier said than done as Samson doesn't have the game to be a floater, who can attack the bowling in the back-10 when the ball goes softer and the pitch becomes a tad slower.

His fifty against Oman was, at best, scratchy.

It is understood that Samson's past record at the top is preventing the team to drop him but in a format where one needs to assign specific roles, it is Jitesh Sharma who fits into the character of a middle-order slogger come finisher.

A look at his batting sample size at various positions in the IPL over past few seasons will give a clearer picture.

Jitesh at No.5 has played 18 knocks and scored 374 runs in 253 balls at a healthy strike-rate of 147.8 while at No.6 he has performed even better.

He scored 384 runs off 230 balls in 15 innings at a strike rate of 167. The Vidarbha stumper, at No.7, has played 76 balls and scored 136 runs in seven innings at a strike-rate of 178.9.

The numbers show that Samson is being forced to don a role which is out of his character while the team management has a 'ready-made option' for the same part.

But as of now, in this bioscope, the director (Gambhir in this case) isn't flexible as far as changing characters are concerned.

Hence Jitesh might have to wait a bit longer but India wouldn't like to pay a price for that. The Sri Lanka match also gives them a chance to rest Jasprit Bumrah (only if he wants) before the grand finale.

Squads: ====== India: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Arshdeep Singh.

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (WK), Kamil Mishara, Kusal Perera, Charith Asalanka (C), Dasun Shanaka, Kamindu Mendis, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Thushara, Nuwanidu Fernando, Binura Fernando, Chamika Karunaratne, Janith Liyanage, Matheesha Pathirana, Maheesh Theekshana.

Match Starts: 8 pm IST.