India, Jan. 25 -- Sanju Samson's quiet New Zealand series isn't just putting his own place under the microscope - it is reopening a selection problem India thought it had parked. The top order is in flux, Tilak Varma is expected back soon, and Ishan Kishan has already produced one innings that forces the management to reconsider the opening combination. In that squeeze, Samson risks becoming the easiest name to move.

But India's decision cannot be reduced to form vs patience. It has to be made as a structural call: what kind of top order makes India hardest to bowl to when the first-choice XI returns.

Sanju Samson is not being picked only as a batter. His value is tied to the shape he gives the line-up.

India's T20 batting group is nat...