For Sanju Samson, India’s third T20I against Sri Lanka had been a long time coming.
His first game for India came all the way back in July 2015, and the wicketkeeper had not played since, missing 73 games between T20I caps – the most by an India player, the joint-third most from any country, and the second-longest gap between a player’s first and second T20I caps. England’s Liam Plunkett had had to sit out 74 games between his first appearance in 2006 and his second in 2015.
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Having waited over four years to get a second chance, Samson was then forced to sit through a century opening stand, with both Indian openers making half-centuries in the same T20I innings for just the sixth time, and, after receiving an unexpected promotion to No.3, looked a man desperate to make up for lost time, smashing his first ball for six.
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However, after looking like he’d barely been away for precisely one ball, Samson showed his ring rust on the second, dismissed LBW. ‘Six and out’ could be the T20 mantra, but Samson did still break another record in his boom-and-bust knock, becoming the first Indian to make six off two in a T20I innings.
