Sanju Samson is a bona fide talent. Hence, it left everyone surprised when the right-handed batter failed to string consistent performances and make himself a regular member of India’s white-ball squads. It took the arrival of Gautam Gambhir as the head coach for Sanju Samson to get a fair run in the T20I side. With Gambhir becoming the coach and Suryakumar Yadav taking over as the captain, Sanju Samson got the chance to open the batting in the shortest format alongside Abhishek Sharma.
Sanju Samson has finally cemented his place as a regular member of the T20I side. Sanju Samson had all the talent to become one of the greats of Indian cricket, but inconsistent performances didn’t allow his career to take off. Sanju Samson was in and out of the team, but with the arrival of Gautam Gambhir as head coach and Suryakumar Yadav taking charge as the T20I captain, things started to fall in place for Sanju Samson.
Indian wicketkeeper Sanju Samson has revealed how India coach Gautam Gambhir’s mentorship during his early days in the IPL at Kolkata Knight Riders and the Indian cricket setup helped shape his approach to the game. Sanju Samson now appears to be in pole position to become India’s T20 opener following the dual retirements of Kohli and Sharma after the T20 World Cup victory earlier this year. Sanju Samson’s three centuries in four T20Is against Bangladesh and South Africa have firmly signaled his intent to secure that spot.
The Indian T20I opening batter, Sanju Samson still is struggling to figure out what exactly is the reason behind his rise to form. The star batter from Kerala Sanju Samson, after struggling to make a spot in the T20I side, has now discovered his best run of form, cementing his position at the top of the order in the Suryakumar-led side.
Sanju Samson Finally Coming of Age in T20 Cricket
Sanju Samson is finally showcasing his true prowess with the bat and making his mark in T20 cricket. He had a brilliant IPL and is amongst India’s highest impact batters in 2024 in the format. Sanju Samson has hammered two international T20 hundreds this year and has been at his destructive best.
Samson has returned with fairly consistent returns in the IPL since 2017. In each of the seven seasons from 2017 till 2023, he has scored in excess of 300 runs at an average varying 27.5 and 40 and a strike rate between 136.7 and 158.9. But there was no one season where he scored big and did so at an alarming scoring rate. Samson scored 484 runs in 2021 at an average of 40.3 but at a slightly underwhelming strike rate of 136.7.
He had an average of 34.2 and strike rate of 148.7 in 2019 which in terms of a combination of average and strike rate, was his best year in the IPL. But it was still not a WOW season! Samson scored at a rate of 158.9 in 2020 – which remains his best scoring rate for any season – but the average was slightly below par at 28.8. Last season, he again struck at 153 but had as many as eight failures in his 14 innings!
Then came 2024. Sanju Samson started the year with a bang with a magnificent unbeaten 82 off just 52 deliveries against Lucknow Super Giants in Jaipur and never looked back! He hammered four more fifties in the season with his best knock a scintillating 86 off 46 deliveries against the Delhi Capitals, albeit in a losing cause in Delhi. Samson was the lone warrior in the match even as every other RR batter failed around him.
Sanju Samson’s five fifties in the season were his most ever in a single edition of the IPL. He ended IPL 2024 with an aggregate of 531 runs (his highest aggregate in a season) in 15 innings at an average of 48.27 – his best ever in a season – at a scoring rate of 153.5 (second-best ever in a season). Overall, it was, by some distance, Sanju Samson’s most prolific year in the IPL.
Sanju Samson hit 72 boundaries in the season – his most ever. He spent more time at the crease as indicative from a balls per dismissal ratio of 31.5 – again the highest ever for him in a season. While he attacked the pacers and struck at 162 against them in the season, he was brilliant against spin too rotating the strike and finding the gaps. His dot ball percentage against the slower bowlers was just 20% – his lowest ever in any season.
Sanju Samson’s breakthrough year in international T20 cricket in 2024
Sanju Samson represented India in just one solitary T20I in 2015 and then did not play for the country till 2020. He had a torrid time in 2020 and 2021 scoring just 98 runs in nine innings at an average of 10.88. Sanju Samson raised the level of his performance in 2022 scoring 179 runs at a rate of 158.4 but failed miserably in the following season in 2023. He could muster 78 runs in six innings in the calendar year at an average of 15.6 and scoring rate of 127.86 with four failures in six outings.
Sanju Samson credits Gautam Gambhir after tasting belated success in international cricket
Team India wicketkeeper Sanju Samson has credited head coach Gautam Gambhir for his recent success in international cricket, after years of inconsistent performances at the top level. The Kerala cricketer hailed the Gambhir for backing him to the hilt and giving him the confidence to express himself.
Samson (30) made his international debut in 2015 against Zimbabwe in Harare but was constantly in and out of white-ball squads for the next few years. His breakthrough performance came when he smashed his maiden international ton in an ODI against South Africa in Paarl in December 2023. Incredibly, the right-handed batter has scored three tons in his last five T20I innings.
The move of making Sanju Samson the opener did not pay off immediately in the series against Sri Lanka. However, the wicketkeeper-batter came in his own in the subsequent contests against Bangladesh and South Africa, smashing three centuries.
In a candid chat with Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel, Samson opened up about feeling low after registering poor scores against Sri Lanka. He then further spoke about Gautam Gambhir instilling belief in him and how it led to getting the best out of him. Sanju Samson, currently the captain of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), also revealed his chat with Suryakumar Yadav about his inclusion in the T20I squad .
“Suddenly, the change happened after the T20 World Cup. Gautam bhai came in, Surya came in as captain. I was playing a Duleep Trophy game in Andhra. Surya was playing in the other team. That’s where Surya told me, ‘ Chetta, there is a huge opportunity coming up for you. We have seven games lined up, and I am going to give you all seven games as an opener’. Hearing that from the captain’s mouth itself, that felt great,” Samson said in an interview with R Ashwin.
“The words coming out from the captain’s mouth itself actually felt, Oh wow, great. I played two games in Sri Lanka but was unable to score runs. I was a bit down in the dressing room, and Gautam bhai came up to me and asked what had happened,” he added.
It was then that Gambhir’s words shocked and surprised Samson. The India head coach told him that the right-handed batter would get a fair chance and would only be dropped if he registered 21 ducks.
“I said, ‘After a long time, I got a chance, but I failed to capitalise’. He said, ‘So what? I’ll drop you if you register 21 ducks’. That’s the word which he used,” said Samson.
“That kind of confidence from the captain and the coach has definitely raised my confidence. That really helped me to go out there and perform,” he added.
Sanju Samson’s roller-coaster ride in T20I for India
Sanju Samson has played 42 T20Is for India so far, scoring 861 runs at an average of 25.32 and a strike rate of 152.38. He has three centuries and two fifties to his name in international T20Is. His maiden T20I century against Bangladesh in Hyderabad, and he then smashed two more tons against South Africa.
Speaking to Ashwin, Sanju Samson was candid enough to accept that being in and out of the team did leave him a bit frustrated, but it all changed post the arrival of Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav.
“I know this thing, being on and off from the team and all those things were happening for a very long period of time, so honestly, I feel like it was not easy, and I think it was definitely not easy to have those kinds of feelings,” said Samson.
‘Like I almost completed eight to nine years of my international career, but I only played 15 games or something. I always tried to keep myself in a very positive frame of mind. I always kept on telling myself, ’Okay, it will happen, but different people have different journeys. Yours is a different journey’,” he added.
Sanju Samson failed to get going in India’s last T20I series against England. He found it tough against the short-ball barrage dished out by the pacers. Now, it needs to be seen whether he retains his place in the playing XI as Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal are expected to make the squad for the upcoming Men’s Asia Cup.
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