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Sanju Samson vs Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: How two Indian batters have performed after first six T20Is
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi could feature in India's third T20I against Afghanistan after captain Shreyas Iyer hinted that players who haven’t got a chance to play against Afghanistan could get a look-in.
Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi have reached the six-T20I mark at vastly different stages of their careers, but their numbers after their first six appearances offer an interesting statistical comparison.
Samson's first six T20Is spanned more than five years, beginning with his international debut against Zimbabwe in 2015 and continuing through India's three-match T20I series in Australia in December 2020.
Sooryavanshi, meanwhile, completed his first six T20Is in just over three weeks in 2026, having made his senior debut in early July against England.
After six T20Is, Sooryavanshi has accumulated 193 runs from six innings, while Samson has scored 73 runs from his first six innings. The difference is therefore 120 runs in favour of the 15-year-old.
Samson has played both the T20Is against Afghanistan, scoring 67 runs. However, India captain Shreyas Iyer on Tuesday hinted that players who haven’t had a chance to play against Afghanistan could get a look-in. This could mean that Vaibhav could replace Samson in the playing XI for the third and final T20I on Thursday.
Samson's scores in his first six T20Is were 19, 6, 8, 2, 23 and 15. His 19 came against Zimbabwe in his debut in July 2015. However, his second T20I appearance for India came almost five years later, in January 2020, against Sri Lanka, due to intense competition for slots.
He scored six against Sri Lanka and then made eight and two against New Zealand. His next two innings, against Australia, produced 23 and 15.
That gave Samson 73 runs at an average of 12.16, with a strike rate of approximately 119.67. He did not register a fifty during those six innings, with his highest score being 23. He faced 61 deliveries during that period.
Sooryavanshi's first six T20Is, on the other hand, have followed a very different trajectory. He began his international career with scores of 14, 13, and 15 against England before producing a dramatic turnaround in India's three-match series against Zimbabwe. He scored 50, 20 and 81 in those games.
His six innings, therefore, add up to 193 runs from 102 balls, giving him an average of 32.17 and a strike rate of 189.21. He has already recorded two half-centuries, with his 81 against Zimbabwe remaining his highest score.
The difference is particularly striking in boundary-hitting. Samson struck three fours and four sixes in his first six innings, while Sooryavanshi has hit 16 fours and 14 sixes. The teenager's 50 against Zimbabwe also made him the youngest player to score a half-century in men's T20I cricket, at 15 years and 118 days.
There is also an important context to the comparison. Samson's six-match run spanned 2015 and 2020, while Sooryavanshi's six matches were played in July 2026. Samson also batted in a different role during the early part of his international career, including lower down the order, whereas Sooryavanshi has been used at the top of India's batting order.
The raw numbers, however, provide a clear snapshot: 73 runs for Samson compared with 193 for Sooryavanshi after six T20Is, with the latter also holding the advantage in average, strike rate and half-centuries at the same stage of their respective international careers.
PN Vishnu is a contributor with the LiveMint Sports team, where he primarily covers cricket, football and other major sporting events. A passionate sports journalist with nearly a decade of experience in digital media, Vishnu has been an ardent follower of sports for more than 10 years. While he enjoys covering a wide range of disciplines, his biggest sporting passions remain cricket and football. He is also a devoted supporter of Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League and Manchester United in English football. <br><br> Vishnu pursued a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai, in 2016 and graduated in 2017. Since then, he has built an extensive career in sports journalism, working with leading media organisations including Deccan Chronicle and Firstpost. In 2025, he worked for CricXtasy for six months before joining LiveMint in February 2026. <br><br> Over the years, he has reported extensively on marquee sporting events such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Indian Super League (ISL). His reporting has also provided opportunities to interact with some of the game's leading personalities, including India cricketers Yuzvendra Chahal and Dhruv Jurel. <br><br> Away from the newsroom, Vishnu enjoys unwinding with books, discovering new music and binge-watching television series.