Sanju Samson talked about former Indian captain MS Dhoni and revealed the one trait he would like to adopt from his game.
India's wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson has said that the one thing he would like to adopt from MS Dhoni's game is his calmness and focus in tough situations. While Samson has been a part of India's T20I setup of late, he had underwhelming performances whenever he received the opportunity in the playing XI.
"MS Dhoni's calmness and focus in tough situations is something that I would like to inculcate in my game as well and be calmer and more focussed while batting," the 25-year-old told TimesofIndia.com.
Samson also stressed that the wicketkeepers today need to be good batsmen in order to sustain in international cricket. Citing the examples of Dhoni and Australia's former wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist, Samson said that the role of wicketkeeper has changed.
Among the current lot, wicketkeepers like Quinton de Kock (South Africa), Jos Buttler (England), Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh) and Tom Latham (New Zealand) play an important role in their respective sides' batting orders.
More recently, KL Rahul also donned the wicketkeeping gloves after Rishabh Pant's inconsistent run in the limited-overs format and performed impressively across both the formats.
"Wicket-keepers today are all top batsmen as well. You look around the world, most of the 'keepers are very good batsmen. Adam Gilchrist changed the game for 'keepers coming up the order, MS Dhoni has done likewise in the middle order," said Samson.
"It is now almost a norm to have a wicketkeeper who is a very good top or middle-order batsman, as it helps the team addan extra bowler or all-rounder in the team."
