Thiruvananthapuram. Wicketkeeper batsman Sanju Samson is ready to return to first-class cricket. ESPNcricinfo has learned that he will feature for Kerala in the second round of Ranji Trophy matches starting on October 18 and will continue playing the Ranji Trophy until he is called up for national duty. India are scheduled to travel to South Africa for a four-match T20 series in November after the Test series against New Zealand. However, Samson will not captain the team and Sachin Baby will remain the captain, who had led the team to victory in the last match against Punjab. Now Kerala’s next match is against Karnataka in Alur. Samson played four Ranji Trophy matches last year, where he scored 177 runs at an average of 35.40 with a highest score of 57.
He also participated in the Duleep Trophy matches held earlier this year, where his scores were 106, 45, 5 and 40. Talking about Baby, in the last Ranji Season, he was the second most successful batsman of the tournament by scoring 830 runs at an average of 83 with four centuries and as many half-centuries. However, the team was able to win only one out of seven matches and five matches were drawn. Due to finishing fourth in the group, his team could not qualify for the knockouts.