There is tough competition for the opening position in Team India's playing-11 for Asia Cup 2025 and it is being claimed that Samson may have to lose his place. But this batsman has strengthened his claim by scoring a century.

Discussions are going on about how Team India's playing XI will be for Asia Cup 2025. Especially after Shubman Gill was made the vice-captain, questions are being raised whether he will replace Sanju Samson in the opening. But Samson has answered these questions in his own style. The star wicketkeeper-batsman, who is playing in the Kerala Cricket League to prepare for the tournament, has wreaked havoc with his bat. Samson, playing for Kochi Blue Tigers captained by his elder brother Sally Samson, tore apart the bowlers with his stormy batting and scored a brilliant century.

Sanju Samson played this memorable innings against Kollam Sellers in a match played in Thiruvananthapuram. Actually, Kochi got a huge target of 237 runs in this match. In such a situation, the team needed a fast start and keeping this in mind, Samson once again came out to open. In the last two matches, he left the responsibility of opening and made a place in the middle order. Due to this, his place in the opening was not considered certain during the Asia Cup. In such a situation, Samson wanted to test himself in the middle order but he failed miserably in the last match.

Fifty in 16 balls, half-century in 42 balls

He was opening for Team India for the last one year. Sanju started collecting boundaries from the first ball of the innings and in the third over he hit 4 consecutive fours. Then in the fourth over, this batsman hit 3 fours and a six in 4 consecutive balls and completed his half-century in just 16 balls. Even after this, Samson did not let his bat go silent and his team scored 100 runs in the powerplay itself. Then in the 14th over, Sanju completed his stormy century. He completed this century in just 42 balls and hit 13 fours and 5 sixes during this. Not only this, he became only the second batsman to score a century in this season of the league.

Claimed again for opening

Samson has staked his claim to retain his opening position before the Asia Cup with this innings. For the Asia Cup, there is a competition between Abhishek Sharma, Samson and Gill for this position in Team India. Chief selector Agarkar had also said at the time of announcing the team that either Samson or Gill will be selected to open with Abhishek Sharma. In such a situation, Samson's opening position, which was considered certain, came under question. This was the reason why Samson batted in the middle order in the last match but could score only 13 runs in 22 balls. But this time he came out to open and by playing an innings of 122 runs in 51 balls, he has again staked a claim for his position.