Talegaon (Maharashtra): Following the disastrous outings in the T20I series against Sri Lanka earlier this year, India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson has started his preparation for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Bangladesh under the former India T20 World Cup-winning coach Rahul Dravid.
Samson has been included in India's T20I squad for the Bangladesh T20Is and is training hard under the guidance of Rajasthan Royals' (RR) newly appointed head coach Rahul Dravid at the Franchise's performance centre in Talegaon, 150 km from Nagpur.
Dravid, who ended his India head coach tenure with the Rohit Sharma-led side's T20 World Cup triumph, was appointed as Rajasthan Royals' head coach last month. He was joined by his fellow coaching staff member and batting coach Vikram Rathour in the setup.
Samson and Dravid have shared a dressing room for both RR and the Indian cricket team. Samson made his debut under the captaincy of Dravid in the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Now, the duo will work as captain and coach for the same franchise in the upcoming 2025 IPL season.
Samson is the strong contender to open the innings for India with southpaw batter Abhishek Sharma. Having batted top of the order 23 times for Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils in his IPL career, he has amassed 559 runs at a strike rate of 135, with three fifties. However, in the last T20I series against Sri Lanka, he was dismissed for back-to-back ducks in the series.
India squad for the Bangladesh T20Is:Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Riyan Parag, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakaravarthy, JItesh Sharma (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav.
