Abhishek Sharma, India's new opening pair, fell victim to a terrible miscommunication after his first outing with Samson

India's new opening combination had a drastic start to their partnership. Abhishek Sharma was dismissed cheaply for 16 in the first T20I after a miscommunication with partner Sanju Samson. In the absence of Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal, India went ahead with Samson as the opening partner for the explosive Abhishek, but the two failed to communicate well between the wickets and Abhishek was substituted with little fuss in Gwalior.

It was the last ball of the second over and Samson played it towards mid-wicket with soft hands, both batters looking for a single. After taking the first steps, Samson sent back Abhishek but it was too late for the left-arm opener as Towhid Hridoy caused a run-out to give Bangladesh an early breakthrough while defending the 128-run target .

During his short stay in the middle, Abhishek showcased his superior shooting ability as he smashed a six and a few boundaries to score 16 runs at a strike rate of 228.57.

Ahead of the series opener, India captain Suryakumar Yadav confirmed that Samson will feature alongside youngster Abhishek in the opening slot in the three matches against Bangladesh.

“Sanju Samson will play in this series and open the batting line-up along with Abhishek Sharma,” Suryakumar Yadav said in the pre-match press conference.

The opportunity that has opened up for Samson comes with the rest of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill for the T20I series. The duo played their part in India's recent 2-0 series win against Bangladesh. Jaiswal finished the series as the leading run-scorer with 189 runs, closely followed by Shubman in second place with a tally of 164 runs.

India beat Bangladesh by 127 points

Meanwhile, Arshdeep Singh and the returning Varun Chakravarthy took three wickets each in the first T20I against Bangladesh as India defeated Bangladesh by 127 balls. Skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto made 27 off 25 balls and Mehidy Hasan Miraz contributed 35 in 32 balls. All eyes were on Mayank (1/21) ever since he marked his run-up before the toss and the 22-year-old from Delhi did not disappoint in his first competitive game in over five months.