Shikhar Dhawan justifies Samson's selection over Pant, cites testing bench strength

Shikhar Dhawan who rediscovered his rhythm with a superb half-century in third and final T20I against Sri Lanka at MCA Stadium in Pune went on to reveal why Sanju Samson was selected instead of Rishabh Pant in that match. Samson, who had played his first T20I match after 2015 was out lbw off second delivery after he had got off mark with a six.

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Shikhar Dhawan on Sanju Samson's selection

“As a team, we wanted to give chance to everyone and that’s why y’ve been rotating players. Till World Cup comes, everyone is refined and kw ir job as well. “It is more to give players (time), like how Sanju Samson came in today (at number 3), n Shreyas (Iyer), so y can get more time in middle because it is a totally different field when you are batting in match and having more overs and so that was reason today.

“And last game was quite rmal and before that, I was t in team, so I didn’t watch matches as well and I didn’t kw what was happening. But today’s one I can tell say that that was reason said Shikhar Dhawan during post-match press conference. 

“Even Manish Pandey went up. So y can have more time, orwise, same pattern going on'', he added. 

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India win ir third straight T20I series 

Chasing a huge target of 202, Sri Lanka were never really re in run chase as y lost wickets at regular intervals. Dhananjaya de Silva played a cameo kck of a 36-ball 57 at a strike rate of 158.33. However, his single-hearted effort was t eugh as visitors were bundled out for 123 with 4.1 overs to spare as India registered a comfortable win by 78 runs to win ir third straight T20I series. 

Earlier, India who were asked to bat first by Sri Lankan skipper Lasith Malinga got off to a flying start courtesy of an opening partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul who added 97 runs. Both went on to score ir respective half-centuries. However, after ir dismissals, quick wickets seemed to derail Indian innings. And after skipper Kohli was run out for a 17-ball 26, it appeared like Men In Blue would t be able to finish ir innings well.

Manish Pandey, who was promoted up order had or ideas as he cut loose and took Lankan bowlers to cleaners. He remained unbeaten on an 18-ball 31 at a strike rate of 172.22 as India finished at 201/6 in 20 overs. 

(Im Courtesy: AP)

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