Sanju Samson believes a batsman can't be judged solely by the number of runs he scores

Numbers don’t lie — unless they do.

“You cannot judge a batsman from the number you read against his name on the scorecard. You have to understand the nature of the pitch first,” says Indian cricketer Sanju Samson.

The diminutive wicketkeeper-batsman has been in fine form in domestic cricket, guiding Kerala to the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy in the 2018/19 season. But Samson has not had success with national selectors, despite a series of match-winning knocks. However, he reckons the snub could be because the quantum of runs he has amassed doesn’t do justice to his talent.


“It is difficult if you play for a state like Kerala where the wickets aren’t conducive for batting. Five-day matches get over in one-and-a-half days and a batsman scoring 50 is adjudged the Man of the Match,” he rued, underlining the fact that runs should not be the sole metric to gauge a batsman’s track record.