India, July 5 -- India's decision to replace Sanju Samson with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi did not land as a routine team change. It landed with the weight of a familiar question. Why always Sanju? Why does the axe so often seem to find him first? Why does a player with such obvious gifts, such clean ball-striking and such rare match-winning ability still live one bad week away from another selection debate?

The answer is uncomfortable because it is not as simple as injustice. Samson has never been an ordinary T20I batter. His record itself refuses that reading: 1405 runs in 57 innings, a strike rate of 155.42, three hundreds, six fifties and 84 sixes. Those are not the numbers of a timid player or a passenger. They belong to someone who can br...