India's T20 WC Top-Order Crisis: Samson in, Abhishek's Food Poisoning Battle

India's leftie-dominant top-order once again had two of its promising members, Abhishek and Tilak, exposed against quality pace and spin as a top-order collapse left them playing a heavy catch-up game in a run-chase of 188 runs. Men in Blue just could not recover after losing Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma one by one, and despite some fight by Shivam Dube, they were skittled out for 111 runs.

While Ishan has endured a rare failure, things have not been even remotely rosy for Abhishek, who has scored just 15 in four innings, with all of these runs coming today and Tilak, who has scored just 107 runs in five innings while scoring at a sub-par strike rate of over 118.

With opener Sanju Samson in the squad, there is a right-hand option available who can break the all-leftie top-order, letting India open with Ishan and Abhishek and maybe him coming in at number three if Tilak gets dropped. Sanju is alone. But the problem is, Sanju has not fired at all for a long while, having made just 290 runs in 17 innings since the start of 2025 at an average of 17.05 and a strike rate of 133.64 with a fifty.

Speaking during the post-match presser on if there would be talks about bringing in Sanju to install one more right-handed option in the top four alongside skipper Suryakumar Yadav, Ryan said, "Yeah, of course, we hav,e and look at the five outings we have had now, four teams have opened with part-time off spin, and it is got a wicket every time, apart from the USA game where we lost Abhi without score in any case (to pacer Ali Khan).

"So to start every inning zero for one, I think it has literally been zero or a couple of runs for one every time is obviously putting pressure on the link players. Tilak and SKY (Surya), their role is to link up with the guys at the back end, and it has notgone that way," he added.

Ryan noted the lack of experience within the team and highlighted India's dilemma whether to stick with the players who have done consistently over 18 months or to bring in Sanju.

"You stick with the guys who we feel have performed really well over the last 18 months and who are maybe shy of a few runs now? Or do we twist and bring Sanju, who is also a fantastic player and obviously helps tactically with having a right-hander at the top of the order, and I am sure that will be a talking point over the next few days, going into these two very important games (against Zimbabwe and West Indies in the remainder of the Super Eight stage).

Ryan acknowledged that it is disappointing that skipper Suryakumar (180 runs in five innings with a fifty) and Shivam Dube (158 runs in five innings with a fifty), while no excuses can be made about Tilak and Abhishek, the latter's preparation was hindered by the battle with food poisoning that reportedly led to considerable weight loss.

"You want him to be up and running and sort of confident in his swing and confident in his game plan (on Abhishek), and when you score three zeros, that is going to start weighing on you. I saw some really good signs on Friday night in the nets. I think I mentioned it in the presser then. But he looks a little bit short, and our job as the coaching staff is to pull that right. We have got four days to do that," he added.

He also pointed out that Rinku Singh, who comes out as a finisher at number seven or eight, has made scores of 6, 1, 11*, 6* and 0 so far, is doing an "incredibly tough job", and while he has not had the best opportunities to bat, that is the nature of the position where he bats.

"There is no point talking about rhythm in nets or how guys are feeling or what they are not feeling. It is time to pull our sleeves up and get performance out of all the players, and like I just said there, that is the challenge for the staff, along with the players now, to regroup and put in a big effort leading up to the next game against Zimbabwe," he concluded.

- ANI