The Indian Express ·
Sport
Sanju Samson’s 57 answers the trolls, but not the question of his future
"It definitely bothers me," he admits, days after 15-year-old Sooryavanshi’s bench role sparked louder outrage than his own axing ever did
The top three names on the backs of India shirts being sold outside the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday made for a peculiar assortment.
Virat Kohli stood atop, unsurprisingly, this being Delhi. Rohit Sharma trailed close behind. Curious, both, given neither man had any stake in the contest on offer, the second T20I between India and Afghanistan, having retired from the format more than a year ago.
Third on the list, and perhaps the most intriguing, belonged to the other end of the generational spectrum: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, all of 15, yet to play an international match on home soil.
A compelling case was made for his selection, and not without merit: a prodigy of rare vintage, with 1,028 IPL runs already to his name, and an 81 in his last T20I. That he warmed the bench for the series opener was enough to set off a chorus of disapproval, from former cricketers, and, as it turned out, their wives too.
It is in this setting that Sanju Samson walked into the Kotla 22-yard strip on Tuesday, fully aware of the discourse swirling around him, and of exactly what another failure might invite.
“At times, I do see comments some former cricketers make about me,” he said at the post-match press conference. Only minutes earlier, he had put the game, and at least a part of the discourse, to bed with a 22-ball 57, seven fours, four sixes, a strike rate of 259.09 underlining his intent.
“It is their choice. It is up to them, what words they want to use. I am mature enough and experienced enough to know how to handle such comments. Initially, I used to feel bad. I am not a robot. I won’t say ‘mere ko farq nahin padhta’ (I am not bothered). It definitely bothers me. You get affected, but then you try to talk to yourself and tell yourself what you are and what you need to do.”
What he needed to do on Tuesday was produce his fastest fifty in T20Is. His T20 World Cup runs from earlier this year, 321 at an average of 80.25 and a strike rate of 199.37, with a Player of the Tournament medal to crown it, were eclipsed anyway by Sooryavanshi’s IPL 2026 numbers: 776 at 48.50 and 237.30, with the Orange Cap alongside. A 31-year-old is no stranger to how recency bias works.
So when the axe fell after he managed just 33 runs across four post-World Cup matches, notwithstanding 275 in the three before that, Samson made his peace with it. Partly because he understood, in his own words, that Sooryavanshi “deserved” the opportunity, and partly because this was hardly the first time he’d found himself first on the list of the expendable.
“It is a very challenging place to be in. I can’t sulk, or be in a negative frame of mind, thinking ‘no yaar, mujhe nahi mila, usko kyu diya’ (why did I not get the chance and he did)? That kind of mindset does not work here. We try to be positive.”
He ranks third among the team’s leading run-scorers over the last couple of years, with 1,055 runs, and third in strike rate among players with a minimum of 500 runs, at 172.95. On those numbers alone, it’s hard to build a case for Samson not being a mainstay of this side.
Reconciling runs and strike rate carries its own risks, especially for a player whose relationship with “consistency” has rarely been easy. This year alone, he’s batted at a strike rate over 200 in three separate innings.
Asked about it, he said: “You can’t control the consistency in the result in this format. We have to strike at 200 strike rate and you just have to hit six or four off every ball. Then, we can’t think of consistency or our own runs.”
He might look back on his own days as a prodigy: selected for India’s U-19 squad for the Asia Cup at 17, yet with only one international cap by the time he turned 25.
Tournaments he travelled to but didn’t play in. Tours he made the squad for but never featured. Tours where he played, and scored heavily, but where it barely registered, because the next World Cup on the horizon was in a different format entirely.
The T20 World Cup should have offered some stability. For any other team, in any other era, it likely would have. Not for India, though, where the nearest rival is a generational wunderkind.
With the next T20 World Cup still a couple of years away, the future, as ever, remains unresolved, however many fifties Samson stacks up between now and then.
Till then, Samson wants the bat to keep swinging, the runs flowing, the head still, the wrists elegant, the feet urgent, and the humour intact. Que Sera Sera.