The past few months have proved to be a microcosm of Sanju Samson’s chequered international career.
If his form at the business end of this year’s T20 World Cup — he won the Player-of-the-Tournament award with 321 runs in five innings — was a dazzling high, the tour of the United Kingdom just three months later was a debilitating low.
After just two games against Ireland and one against England, which yielded returns of 5, 0 and 1, he made way for teen prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. While Samson came back for the fifth and final T20I against the Englishmen, he had already been omitted for the subsequent tour of Zimbabwe.
Samson’s topsy-turvy ride hasn’t halted. At the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday, the 31-year-old was back to wielding his willow like a cutlass, scything the Afghanistan attack for a blistering 57 off 22 balls in a chase of 160. In the aftermath, Samson spoke with refreshing candour and endearing wit, and showed no resentment at recent developments.
“After a few failures, you definitely go through a lot as an Indian cricketer. It is not easy to face failures. But that is where my experience comes in. I try to shut out the noise and still try to keep scoring at a high strike rate. I take the chances knowing that if I fail again, I will be facing a lot of noise again. But that is the way we are built here in Indian cricket,” the opener said.
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At a time when social media is all-pervasive, how does he shut out the outside noise? “I try to switch off the wi-fi,” he chuckled. “But sometimes the wi-fi switches on, and the comments of some senior players crop up. It is their choice to say what they want to say. I have been mature and experienced enough to handle that.
It does affect you. We are not machines or robots. But I try to talk to myself and be clear on my mindset. If I was affected a lot by outside noise, I wouldn’t be able to play the way I do. Before every attacking shot, I would be thinking 10 times.”
Though the man from Kerala had the right to feel aggrieved at being dropped so soon after his T20 World Cup exploits, he acknowledged that Sooryavanshi had made an irresistible case for inclusion.
“It is not easy to run the Indian team. You can see that there is a 15-year-old kid who has scored 700-800 runs in the IPL. My Player of the Tournament award was before that. He (Vaibhav) had performed so well. He had to come in. I didn’t perform in three games. He was in form. It was very understandable from a leadership perspective,” Samson stated.
When Samson was left out in England, coach Gautam Gambhir revealed that he had given the wicketkeeper-batter complete clarity about where he stood. In the practice sessions leading up to this series against Afghanistan, too, Samson was seen engaging in long chats with Gambhir.
“As a captain in the IPL, I have been in that position where I have taken tough calls. That is where the communication comes in. GG [Gambhir] bhai’s communication was very important. He spoke to me a lot in England and before this series as well. It is not easy to make hard decisions, but as a leadership group, they have been taking tough calls, keeping the team in front. That is where we have to give credit to the leadership group,” asserted Samson.
Published on Sep 16, 2026
